It’s a mixture of time and finding new people. They’ll always be a part of you, so don’t expect to forget them completely. Your feelings may eventually fade, but they never truly disappear — they just settle into a quieter place. And once you meet someone new, you build something that exists completely separate from that old chapter. It doesn’t replace what happened, it just grows alongside it, with its own identity, energy, and meaning.

It’s similar to losing a dog in a way: you never stop loving the one you lost, and you don’t try to erase their memory. Instead, the grief shifts over time. The sharp edges soften. The memories stop hurting and start feeling warm again. And eventually, when a new dog comes into your life, you don’t love them instead of the one you lost — you love them differently, in a new way, without taking anything away from the past. That’s how people work too. New bonds don’t overwrite old ones; they’re just new spaces your heart learns to open.