She said she isn't ready for a relationship as serious as the one we had. It was our first relationship and we are both currently in college
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Of course she wants to have fun with all the freedom she is about to get, and a relationship will severely hinder her choices. She is right. I don't know if she is leaving her hometown or not to go to college, but for sure, she wants her options to be open, and her decisions to be her own.
She said we both need to date other people to make sure we are right for each other and to develop further.
That's a classic line to let you down easy, and while its true as she is saying it, reality will show her a lot of things better than the way things are now, just because she has the freedom to choose on her own, without the influence of what you want, or the responsibility to consider your feelings any longer. She has made it clear she really wants to be with me again in the future and she couldn't imagine a better relationship, it's just she needs time to be on her own and have freedom to develop as her own person
I know breaking up wasn't easy for her and we both still love each other a lot.
Of course you still do, but other factors have to be considered, like her freedom, and dream to be completely on her own, that has obviously made everything else less of her priority. Its called embracing her new opportunities, and she has that right.
We're still best friends but no longer a couple
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That's a big radical change in your lives, and you have to accept it, and move beyond the feelings of loss, rejection, and disappointment. Not only to think clearly and cope with the facts of this break up, but also to heal in a positive way, by doing your own thing, and letting her do hers. Trying to be friends before you have healed will never work, no way. You would be a lousy friend because you can't accept just being a friend and you will torture yourself pretending to be one, just because you will want her back, and be reminded of when she was a g/f, and not just a friend.
On one hand I can understand why she wants a break, however I also am still very in love with her and am worried she will never come back.
Those are YOUR fears that drive you now, and that's all you can see at the moment, and while you understand what she is telling you, you have not accepted it, nor want it. That's understandable.
Leave her alone, and do your own thing that you enjoy without her. You must be honest with her that you can't be friends, until you heal, and that will take time. Then you can better adjust your thinking once you accept the reality of your situation, which has radically changed through no fault of your own, or hers. It just has, and that's just life.
I don't want to lose her and I want to do whatever I can to increase the chances of her starting our relationship again in the future.
You have already lost her dude, and that's what you need to accept, and start looking to your own future without her in it. Trying to hold on to what you had will make you absolutely miserable, and magnify the pain by a million. That's why you have to let go and accept reality. So you can move beyond this and be happy with the life you have to make for yourself. Its hard and we all have had to face the choice of making a life without someone in it. It sucks and takes time to overcome, but it starts with being honest about how much we need to heal, before anything can happen positively.
That's where you are now. Between acceptance and healing. Its called shock.