Struggling to move on 3 months after break up

tiodaat · #1 Jun 23, 2009, 11:30 PM

Hello,

I dated a wonderful and amazing girl who I met while she was on exchange at my graduate school in the United States. We dated the entire school year, over the summer (although 2/3 of it was long distance), while I studied for one semester in the European country she is from, and several months into the next semester, when I returned to the U.S., and she remained in Europe. All in all, our relationship lasted about 19 months.

She is younger than I am (22, whereas I am 25), and will be starting graduate school in the United States, although in a different city than where we met, and where I will be working this coming year, now that I have graduated.

The break-up was a complete surprise to me, and came on the heels of a death in her family. The main reasons she has given me for the break up are as follows:

1. She is uncertain about what she wants to do with her career, and where she wants to live (in Europe near her family, versus somewhere like the United States), and she feels that being with me complicates her decision because she cares so much about me.

2. Although I never asked her to move to the city where I will be working, she doesn't feel like she is at an age to make that kind of move.

3. She was worried that we would only be able to see each other once a month (which is true), and that sometimes she would be too busy with her studies, and that this type of relationship would strain her year at graduate school.

I can't really argue with any of these reasons for breaking up, but I know that, at least as of a few weeks ago, we both loved each other very much.

After the break up, I went into immediate NC mode, which was broken after about a week when we talked on the phone. From there, we agreed to email once a week, as we wanted to stay in touch with each other. That turned into emailing every day, like we did when we were dating--mostly due to the stress of her final exams in the spring, and her telling me how much she needed my support, and loved to get my emails. We would nearly always tell each other how much we missed each other, and about once a week or so, we would write I love you. We also started to text periodically, and have phone conversations about once a week. As I said, it was very similar to the content and frequency of our communication while we were dating. This entire process, which lasted for about 2 months, was a bit of a roller coaster for me, and I kept up with the emails because I honestly believed that I would feel worse with no communication. At the beginning of June, we agreed not to talk or email for one month, after she told me that she was missing me more and more everyday, and felt like our daily emails to each other were largely to blame.

Which brings me to the present. I have no idea what kind of communication I should resume with her, if any, come the beginning of next month, and I am not sure how I should communicate with her when she comes back to the U.S. for school next year. While NC might be best for me to move on, I feel like remaining friends on some level is the only way that we would actually date again if circumstances allowed for it in the future.

I've never had a break up that was due to timing and circumstance, as this one appears to be, and I can't help but think that if she decides to stay in the U.S., we would have a real chance of dating again. If anyone has any suggestions for me, they would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

kctiger · Jun 24, 2009, 06:39 AM

Let's be honest here, you NEVER went NC. NEVER! You never gave it a chance and that is exactly the reason you are still here, now, wondering why you are having trouble getting over this, three months later. You can't just toss a phrase or philisophy around and by doing so, expect things to work.

This is over, for now. Your being friends with her will not help your situation in my opinion. Making a judgement call on feelings is ordinarily a bad choice, and as long as you stay in contact and are stuck in the friends zone, you are going to have feelings for her. This is cheating you and her out of enjoying other opportunities.

If it is meant to happen it will happen, friends or not. The call you need to make is decide whether it is worth it to live in limbo until one day she either tells you she met another guy, or that she wants you back. Is it worth it? Not to me...

tiodaat · Jun 24, 2009, 12:01 PM

Thank you for the replies.

This is a completely different girl than the one from 2007, and the relationship I had with this girl makes my time with the other girl in 2007 look like a small, wasted blip on the radar of my life.

tiodaat · Jun 24, 2009, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jolienoire

seems you have a pattern with involving yourself with distant relationships, anyway you moved on from the 2007 issue, even though the girls are different the outcome is similar. You could still use the advice from the previous thread.

I really don't see how the two girls are even remotely similar. One was a graduate student that was slightly older than me and lived in the same city as I do.

The other was a younger, European woman who I traveled the world with and dated for more than 3x as long.

tiodaat · Jun 24, 2009, 12:35 PM

I suppose my question can be boiled down to the following:

Given the nature of my relationship with this girl, and our break up, would it be better for me to continue the month of NC that we've had, or for me to resume some form of communication, knowing that she will be thousands of miles away from me for at least the next year?

kctiger · Jun 24, 2009, 12:37 PM

I would read my post again...that is my advice and I stick to it.

talaniman · Jun 24, 2009, 12:56 PM

You can't get over someone or even gain perspective on them until you leave them alone and stop keeping old feelings stirred up by contact with them.

Quote:

At the beginning of June, we agreed not to talk or email for one month, after she told me that she was missing me more and more everyday, and felt like our daily emails to each other were largely to blame.

She is absolutely right, and you need to listen to her and leave her alone. She is trying to move on and so should you.



At Ask Me Help Desk you can ask questions in any topic and have them answered for free by our experts. To ask questions or participate in answering them you must register for a free account. By registering you will be able to: Get free answers from experts in any of our 300+ topics. Accept money for answers that you provide. Communicate privately with other members (PM). See fewer ads. Sign Up!