Sometimes you are completely blind-sided with a breakup. Everything is going fine, and then one day he says that with the way your lives are going right now, there's no future for the two of you. So you quit while you're ahead, before you destroy what you do have. The timing isn't right. You need to get your lives off the ground. He doesn't say that he won't come back around one day, but he doesn't promise that he will either.

So you're stuck here, in this moment, waiting. You give yourself two weeks to wallow in your own self-pity. Then you decide it's time to get on with your life, it's time to stop being lazy. You start working out, reading more, and watching TV less. Things that he wished you would've done while you were together. You start to feel better about yourself.

You wonder why you took this love you had for granted? Why you had pointless fights. You wish you would've loved more and fought less. That fighting just isn't worth the negative impact it will have on your relationship, no matter how small the argument.

You're no longer sad, but you feel a huge loss. Your life is no longer what it was for the past couple of years. Every morning when you wake up it takes a few minutes for reality to sink in. You won't be getting that "good morning" text. No one is going to text you in the middle of the day to ask how you are. You don't have the luxury of curling up on the couch at the end of the night with the one you love.

You no longer have your best friend who you tell everything to. Then you wonder if maybe you shouldn't have told him everything. When you're in love with someone, you want to share everything with them, good and bad. But after awhile the negative things you say stick in his head. They over-power the good. Then one day he thinks you're not a positive person. You realize that you should've been sharing your triumphs and showing how proud you are of yourself. You shouldn't have belittled yourself. The truth is: bad news isn't news worth sharing.

So now that you're not together, you keep the conversations light and positive. Completely shutting him out of your life isn't an option when you're still madly, deeply in love with him. You try to wait for him to text you first, but he never does. You wonder how long it would take for him to contact you. But you don't have the strength to wait it out. You end up texting first and that short conversation gives you peace of mind for a couple of days. But you want more.

You wonder when it's going to be the right time for the two of you. Will he meet someone else before then? Will he graduate college then move out of state? How on Earth will you two ever find your way back to one another? You don't know the answer to that question. But one day, you will know. Either your paths will come together once again or there will be a time when you realize that it really is over. As of now, you hold onto that small piece hope that he gave you because that's all you've got.

Usually when someone leaves you, you destroy all evidence of that person from your life. But when you still love them and they still love you, you leave the pictures on the wall as a daily reminder of what you're trying to get back. You keep the pictures up because that love is still there, somewhere. Every time you look at the picture of you two kissing you feel a stab in your heart of the love and affection that you're missing and you promise yourself that you will never take it for granted ever again. When you look at that picture of you two side by side smiling, his hand on the small of your back you think about the future that you had pictured of the two of you in your head. When you look at the picture of the two of you looking into one another's eyes laughing, you think of all of the blissful moments you shared together and will hopefully one day, share once again.

The pictures give you hope for the future. That hopefully once you both have grown, you'll find your way back to each other. That once you both become better versions of yourselves, you'll be able to love each other selflessly. You hope that this time apart will be good for you. You will miss each other but you now know that you can live without them, but you don't want to live without them.

They say things fall apart only so they can be put back together. It happened once; who says it can't happen again? Some people say that a true, strong relationship can get through any tough circumstance together and they will come out stronger at the end. Well what if you need to fight your battles on your own? Wouldn't you like to say that you had the courage to do it alone? No two relationships are the same. You've decided to not hurt each other over and over again. You've decided to use your head and not your heart. You've decided to do what will be the best for the long run. Why drag your partner through the dirt? Just to say that you didn't give up? Well you didn't give up but you did destroy your relationship and now there's nothing left.

So you've decided to go separate ways for a while but to stay in touch. Maybe you don't get to see each other but at least you know that you still have someone who will be there for you. So for now you take what you can get and you keep on improving yourself. One day you will either win him back or you will attract someone like him.