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JustDarling💙's avatar

For some reason I’d rather get broken up with over text. In person, it leaves me vulnerable and I’m already an emotional mess as is. I’m sure whoever that unfortunate man who decides to go for me is, doesn’t want to see tears pile up. As long as the text provides why and closure I’m fine with it. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve never been in a relationship though.

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Brunette from Wall Street's avatar

I know the feeling of being trapped so well. I always get this chest pain.

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Jessica Mills's avatar

God, yes. That chest-tightening, air’s-too-thick, can’t-breathe kind of dread. It’s like your body knows before your brain does. Sending love—seriously. You’re not alone in that feeling, even if it makes you feel like you are.

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Mal's avatar

this reminded me of my first boyfriend from 8th grade — he begged me for days (week??? Idk) to go out with him and also kinda followed me everywhere.

one day after school over messenger I finally gave in. the next day at school felt SO wrong and weird and I didn’t like it so that day afternoon I ended it again over messenger and didn’t give a valid reason just that I wasn’t into it. a whole 22 hr relationship. 😂 we obviously were young and not serious but we did talk a lot as friends for awhile and I could tell he was hurt from it and also still liked me a bit.

I learned very recently that he passed away and although I haven’t seen him since high school ended (so… 20 years) it kinda made me sad knowing he was technically my first “boyfriend” and there’s no chance I’ll just run into him somewhere (we live

about 6 hrs away but I visit that city occasionally) to catch up. Anyways. It kinda just made me think about life/death a bit more. 😅

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Jessica Mills's avatar

Wow, this really hit me. First of all, thank you for sharing that. It’s wild how those brief, messy little first relationships can stick with us, even if they were short-lived or awkward. There’s something tender about the fact that he was technically your first boyfriend, and now that moment is sealed in memory forever. Sometimes it’s not about the depth of the relationship—it’s the weird, nostalgic significance of it. Life’s strange that way, isn’t it?

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Nikki's avatar

Love this piece! Dating, and breaking up, in the modern world is so weird. (and try it from a gen x perspective who started dating pre-SMS! We're all over the place trying to figure out if it's okay! Ha!)

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Jessica Mills's avatar

Thank you so much! And YES. Honestly, hats off to Gen X because I can’t even imagine navigating all this without the digital buffer we’ve been cursed/blessed with. Pre-SMS sounds terrifying and oddly noble. Now we’ve got five messaging apps, zero rules, and a million ways to emotionally spiral. We’re all confused together... just with better emojis now.

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