Anyone who as ever gone through a breakup has felt it. Maybe it happened completely unintentionally; you were simply glancing in your phone gallery and hadn't deleted those saved Snapchats. Perhaps you knew what you were in for, looking through old pictures on Facebook or even doing the unthinkable by holding the actual prints. It's that painful longing that you feel in your stomach, in the back of your throat when you see a picture that, at the time, let the world know how happy you were together. "We were so in love," you may dare to think to yourself. "This picture proves it."
No. Stop there.
That feeling is exactly why old pictures can be so dangerous. That picture you are tearing up about does not tell you the whole story. It doesn't show you the fight you had soon after or the hard times that drained your soul. No one snapped a photo when you were crying yourself to sleep because of harsh words that were said. You didn't take a selfie when your relationship problems made it difficult just to smile. A picture may be worth a thousand words but some of those words are lies.
It's so easy to ask yourself the "what if's" after a relationship comes to an end. Admittedly, yes, people do get back together sometimes and some of those couples flourish. However, you simply cannot let your judgment be clouded by a few flattering pictures that you took with your ex on a sunny day. Things happen. People change. If a person is your ex, they are your ex for a reason. Whether or not it was you who broke off the relationship, the worst thing that you could do is to nose-dive into your fondest memories with a person while completely disregarding the things that led to the eventual breakup. I know it's a terrible cliche but what's meant to be is meant to be. Especially in the age of social media and Facebook stalking, sighing over old pictures will only make it more difficult to move on.
Now, am I saying that you need to delete every single trace of that person that ever existed in your life? Not necessarily (though that may not be a terrible idea). But just keep in mind that those pictures are not your only memories. That old photo of you is just a reminder of how happy you are capable of being with a person. Now, just imagine how amazing it will be when the other subject in front of the camera is the one you're meant to be with.
Taylor Swift almost says it all: "As far as I'm concerned, you're just another picture to burn refuse to dwell on."
