To the person who cheated on me,

First and foremost, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for breaking my heart and making me stronger. If it was not for your actions, I do not know if I would have learned to find happiness on my own. For years, I relied on relationships to make me happy, but that stopped with you.

You made me lose all trust in guys. If you did not cheat on me, I would not have learned that when it comes to guys, actions do speak louder than words. Guys will say anything to make you fall for them so they can get what they want, but at the end of the day, I deserved better than that. I deserved to be treated like a girl deserves to be treated and be with someone who has the utmost respect for me.

You never cared, you just pretended you did. I fell for everything you said. I believed that you actually cared about me, I believed that you had the same interests as me and I believed that you wanted to be with me forever. The thing is, when you're in high school, none of that is realistic. The chances of us making it through a long distance relationship were incredibly slim. If you didn't cheat, we both would've ended up hurt.

Thank you for making me realize that no one needs to be in a toxic relationship. It doesn't matter how happy two people are when they are together, ultimately if there is no trust between the two people, they will fight all the time.

Cristina said the most relevant words to Meredith in Grey's Anatomy. "He’s very dreamy, but he’s not the sun. You are." When it came to our relationship, I thought you were everything. I thought you were the moon and the sun. I thought my happiness was revolved around you; I was wrong.

Thank you for not accepting me for who I am. Short hair and a nose piercing later, I'm still the person I was, just free from you.

You were everything I thought I needed in my life, but you ended up being everything I didn't need. You showed me that trust isn't a light switch. You can't just get together with someone and trust them. They have to earn your trust. You taught me that everything that seems perfect and fairy-tale like, isn't.

I thought I loved you, I thought you showed me what love was, but I was wrong. I was young and thought I, myself knew what love was. What we had wasn't love, it was adoration. Telling someone you love them before trusting them and knowing everything about them is not love.

Thank you for teaching me that you never should take a boyfriend to prom. After a breakup, you will look back on those pictures and realize that you regret every single moment of prom. If I could go back, I would have never gone with you.

From you cheating, I learned to take time for myself. During that time, I figured out what I really am looking for in a guy. I learned that love in high school isn't realistic, it's typically "puppy love." I learned that when it comes to happiness, I cannot dictate how I feel based on a guy. I now know that my happiness comes first; I cannot put a relationship before my own happiness.

Finding someone that respects you, treats you well and doesn't make you unhappy is the type of guy you need. You cheating proved that you weren't that guy. I may have been naive enough to go back to you afterward, but we live and learn.

You weren't a mistake, you were a lesson.

Sincerely,

The girl who learned her lesson