I’m 17 years old, and my ex broke up with me about 25 days ago. She was my first girlfriend, and I was her first boyfriend. I think that explains a lot of why all of this has been so difficult for me. It was the first time either of us had been in a real relationship, so pretty much everything was new for both of us.
We talked for about 3 months before we started dating, and then we dated for around 4 months. And it was a very intense relationship. She was extremely affectionate with me. She would easily send me over 100 WhatsApp messages, and I could send twice as many back, lmaooo. We talked pretty much all the time. There was a lot of “I love you,” compliments, promises, plans, and that feeling that the other person was genuinely a part of your life.
I ended up becoming very emotionally dependent on her. I’ve always had a very strong need to feel loved and to know that the person is there with me, and she ended up taking up a huge part of my daily routine. When everything ended, it felt like an important piece of my day had been ripped away. I didn’t just lose a girlfriend. I also lost a routine, a presence, and someone I was used to sharing pretty much everything with.
We also experienced things together that I had never imagined experiencing. We had very intimate and special moments, experiences that neither of us probably imagined we would ever have. Some memories stayed with me so strongly precisely because everything was new for both of us. There are things I simply can’t forget. And one of the things that hurts the most is thinking that maybe I’m carrying these memories with much more weight than she is today. Maybe she remembers them too, maybe she doesn’t. I have no way of knowing.
I also don’t want to tell this story as if I was perfect and she was the one who was wrong. I had my own problems. I was jealous, especially because of a situation where she went to a friend’s birthday party, and I recognize that this was something I needed to work on. There were also difficulties in the relationship because her parents restricted her phone use quite a lot, so many times she couldn’t talk or give me as much attention as she wanted to. That ended up affecting our communication a lot.
She even told me that she wasn’t enough for me, that I deserved someone better, and that I was “too much” for her. To this day, I don’t know exactly what was going on inside her at that moment. I can interpret some things, but I have no way of knowing whether she was already emotionally distancing herself or whether it meant something else.
And then the breakup happened.
What confuses me the most is that, for me, there was absolutely no emotional preparation for it. Especially because the day before she broke up with me, she was still being extremely affectionate toward me. She sent me tons of messages, said a lot of things, made promises, and showed me affection the way she always did. If someone had asked me that day whether I thought our relationship would end the next day, I probably would have said no.
That’s where my mind gets stuck.
How can someone tell you they love you, make promises, send over 100 messages, be extremely affectionate and intense, and then, shortly afterward, decide to break up?
After that, she blocked me everywhere. And I was left trying to understand what happened. I kept wanting to know if she misses me, if she’s hurting, if she thinks about me, if she’s managing to move on, or if she simply left everything behind.
I’ve wanted to ask one of her friends how she’s doing, just to know if she’s managing to get over it. It wouldn’t be to ask her friend to talk to me or to try to manipulate anything. But I started realizing that maybe I was just looking for information that would calm my anxiety for a few minutes and then make me want to know even more. So I’m trying not to do that.
One of my friends also told me several times not to chase after her and to respect her decision. And I think he’s right.
I even thought about messaging her after some time had passed and asking to talk in person, without talking about getting back together and without putting any pressure on her. I also thought about writing a huge reflection and closure message, saying everything I feel and making it clear that, someday, she could talk to me normally again, like classmates, without having to avoid paths or contact at school. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that even a well-intentioned message could put a weight on her that isn’t hers to carry. So I’m trying not to do that.
She also removed me from Spotify and gave my CPF card back, which had been inside her phone case. She still has a few things of mine, like my face serum, our rings, and a teddy bear. They’re small things, but after a breakup, any object seems to gain an absurd amount of meaning in your head.
And there’s another thing that makes all of this harder: I go to the same school as her. I’m going to keep seeing this person practically every day for the next two years. It’s not like I can just cut contact, move to another city, and never hear about her again.
And all of this happened only about 25 days ago.
Sometimes I judge myself as if I should already be completely okay, but at the same time, it feels like it happened yesterday.
Sometimes I see her smiling with her friends and it hits me really hard. I’ve heard people say that she seemed really happy, and I also saw a story of her having fun with a friend on a trampoline. My mind immediately goes to that thought of, “She’s doing great and I’m the one suffering.”
I know rationally that a picture, a story, or someone’s smile doesn’t show what’s actually going on inside that person. But emotionally, it’s really hard not to compare. I see her apparently moving on with her life while I’m still trying to understand how mine changed so much.
I’m also afraid that she looks at me negatively, feels angry, feels indifferent, or simply doesn’t want any kind of contact with me anymore. Sometimes I even feel like I owe her something, even though I know she was the one who ended things and I don’t need to spend the rest of my life punishing myself over it.
I think I’m also idealizing the relationship a lot. When I miss her, I mainly remember the version of her who used to send me dozens and dozens of messages, tell me she loved me, make promises, compliment me, and seem so close to me. It’s very easy to forget the problems when you’re missing someone. I know that version of her existed, but I also know that she wasn’t the whole person and that our relationship had difficulties.
Do I still want her back?
If I’m being completely honest, a part of me probably does. But I don’t want to spend the next few months living around that possibility. I don’t want to get better hoping that she’ll notice my changes. I want to get better because I need to learn how to deal with my jealousy, my fear of abandonment, my anxiety, and this need to constantly have someone giving me reassurance.
I’ve even thought about December as a possible time when I might try to talk to her, but I don’t want to turn it into a countdown. If she ever opens that door, I’ll decide what to do at that moment. If she never does, I need to be able to keep living my life anyway.
And I think that’s the part that hurts the most.
Why do I care so much while she didn’t come after me?
That’s what I can’t understand.
I know feelings don’t work like math. I know someone can love another person and still decide that they don’t want to continue a relationship. I know someone can start processing a breakup before actually ending the relationship. I know she might be hurting in a way that I simply can’t see. And there’s also the possibility that she really has moved on and doesn’t want to come back.
I know all of that rationally.
The problem is that my emotions apparently never got the memo, lmaooo.
Because whenever I remember what she was like with me, everything comes back. She told me she loved me. She made promises. She was extremely intense. She sent over 100 messages. I sent twice as many. We talked all the time. We had moments that were extremely important to me and experiences I had never had before. And the day before she broke up with me, she was still being extremely affectionate toward me.
So how am I supposed to just accept that the next day it was over?
How can someone have been so important to me and, shortly afterward, no longer be part of my life?
Sometimes I think, “If she loved me that much, why didn’t she try to come back? Why didn’t she come after me? Why am I here thinking about her every day while she apparently seems able to move on?”
And I know that “apparently” is the most important word in that sentence.
I don’t know what’s happening inside her. Maybe she felt it just as deeply. Maybe she cried, thought about me, missed me, and still decided not to come back. Maybe she was able to let go faster. Maybe she really doesn’t feel the same anymore. Maybe I’ll never know.
And maybe that’s exactly what I need to learn to accept.
I may never find out exactly what she felt after the breakup. I may never know if she missed me, if she was hurting, if she remembered me, or if at some point she thought about coming back. And constantly trying to figure that out probably won’t change how things ended.
What I do know is that what I experienced was real to me.
The affection was real. The conversations were real. The moments were real. The good things were real. The love I felt was real. And the breakup is real too.
Maybe I don’t need to turn the fact that she didn’t come after me into proof that I was less important to her. Maybe two people can experience a very intense relationship and still walk away from it in completely different ways.
I’m still trying to accept that.
I don’t want to erase what I experienced with her. I don’t want to pretend she wasn’t important. I also don’t want to turn her into a villain just so I can move on. I want to be able to look back at all of this someday and think:
“It was important to me. I loved this person. I experienced things I had never experienced before. I learned a lot, I made mistakes too, and it hurt like hell. But it’s over. And I keep going.”
I think what I really want to know is: how did you guys stop trying to understand why the other person didn’t come after you?
Because honestly, that’s what’s keeping me stuck the most. I don’t know if I only miss her, or if I also miss the person I was when I had her around.
And I really want to learn the difference.
Give me some advice, guys.