This might sound strange off the bat, but I’m grateful I have been through a long-term relationship breakup.

Of course, everyone hopes that their long-term love will work out. After all, all relationships end in separation or marriage. Doesn’t everyone aspire for the latter? That being said, I’m OK with the fact that we fell out of love.

When I say that I’m OK, I don’t mean I dislike you now, and I don’t mean that I’m happy we stopped talking. I don’t mean I regret the time we spent together. I just mean I have come to terms with us not being “us.” You’re just you now, and I’m just me. Our lives are both growing, just in different directions now.

I have had to learn to support myself through hard times, and I have had to learn to look in the mirror and complement what I see, because you’re not there to do either for me. You used to be the one to tell me I looked nice, now I just have to feel that confidence for myself. It’s been great for my mental health, and I’m so much more accepting of myself; merely because I had to be.

I have had to reach out to friends, and expand my social circles, because I don’t have the one person that I could always rely on spending time with. Don’t get me wrong, I loved our time together, but now my friends and I spend all our free time together, and I’m closer with them than I ever could have been while also being in a relationship.

I have checked my phone less, and appreciated communication more. I enjoyed texting someone all day everyday, but when that goes away it makes you truly appreciate the sentiment that someone is thinking of you when you receive a text.

I have learned more, and taken more opportunities. You never held me back on purpose, and you always encouraged me to follow my dreams, but now that I’m only accountable to me I’m much more prone to saying “yes” and seeing where life takes me.

I hope you’re happy, too, or at least learning to be. I’m so grateful to have been forced into loving myself; I don’t think I ever would have done it without your help.

Thank you for the support you provided me while we were together, but thank you for letting me learn to support myself without you.