When my boyfriend from my senior year of high school and I had broken up for various reasons, I was upset, to say the least. I wanted to work through our issues, but with everything else going on in both our lives, the timing just wasn't right. I didn't like to accept change, especially when the change involved a loss of something close to me. I was heartbroken.

I survived. After realizing we were not going to get back together (which involved months of going back and forth between accepting that we weren't going get back together and trying to work things out), I met someone else. My next heartbreak, though, I didn't know it at the time. I went on with dating the boy I had met in college and was happily moved on from said ex while I watched a new relationship begin again.

He thought I was funny and smart, but he treated me better than the last did (as I've found this gets better with every relationship as I move forward). He made me smile and laugh, and I forgot about the one that broke my heart. He picked up the pieces and made me feel loved again.

That relationship, as most do at a younger age, didn't work out for its own reasons. But hey, you either break up or get married, right?

It wasn't until about three years after the high school relationship ended that I truly received an apology for leaving me heart broken.

Three. Years.

I had already had my heart broken by another boyfriend and was moving on with my life. He had texted me occasionally and we'd have casual conversations—after all we had been a huge part of each other's lives—but he had never truly apologized for leaving me out to dry.

I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep and failing due to the excitement of the upcoming weekend when I received the text. I figured it was another casual conversation, and I knew it was coming because it had been a little while since we'd spoken. I did not expect the apology that came after a few mindless messages.

At first, I was furious. How on earth can you actually expect to come back into my life after all this time? After I had tried so hard to work on things that I "needed" to change in order to stay with him (of course, I hadn't realized how toxic it was to be with someone you felt he need to change for). After I chased him like a hopeless idiot that was a teenage girl who thought she was in love (which I realized years later was actually just an infatuation). To come out of the woodwork and ask me to meet up to try to work things out three years later? Three.

In three years, my family had moved out of our hometown where I had met him, I had nearly finished my Bachelor's degree, had another relationship and inevitable heartbreak, made new friends, joined a sorority, and had various new jobs and internships. I was a completely different person than I was back in 2012.

And for once, I am the one rejecting him. It's nice to keep in touch with someone who meant so much to me at one point, but I, sadly and honestly, would be OK with never seeing him again. Sure, if I saw him out I would say hello and make small talk. But in the wise words of Taylor Swift, "the chain is on my door." It's not my fault it took him three years to go "Back to December" and realize his mistake.

And I'm OK with it. I can't even lie and say I appreciate the apology. I had already accepted the fact that I was never getting a true apology and that was that. Waiting around for an apology you're (probably) never going to receive is worse than waiting around for a person to come back.

I'm not mad he apologized, don't get me wrong. I'm sure that took a lot of pride to swallow and was nerve-wracking to send and wait for my response. And that response did take longer than usual for me to send because what do you say to someone you at one point missed so much and no longer do?

In my case, I told him not to be sorry and that I did not see our relationship as a mistake. Which is true. But I do not want to move backwards.

"For the first time, what's past is past." – Taylor Swift

I'm done expecting apologies from those who have hurt me because chances are you aren't going to get one or it's going to take three years to get one. And by then none of it hurts anymore and it doesn't mean much.

If you've hurt someone and are planning to apologize to them, do it sooner rather than later because by the time you finally get the courage (aka growing a pair and swallowing your damn pride) and apologize, they could be long, long, long gone. Like three years gone.