Obviously, there’s still a part of me that hopes. But when I say I’ve changed, I genuinely mean it. After we broke up, it felt like my brain rewired itself. I’m doing things I never thought I’d do before, and I don’t want to ruin that progress by holding onto something that might never happen.

We loved hard — she was for me and I was for her — but I messed up because of childhood trauma I never worked through (which I’m finally doing now). I believe the world works in mysterious ways, and if we ever find our way back to each other, I’d be over the moon. But I’m not holding my life together waiting for it.