I dated a guy for five years.. and left him for someone else (whom I started dating before our relationship was over). The first few years were rocky; the latter portion of our relationship was relatively stable, despite the fact that his home life was largely dysfunctional. I had valid reasons for wanting to leave the relationship, I just hate myself for the way that I finally did leave. It doesn’t matter that I was unhappy. It doesn’t matter that I knew our relationship, as a whole, was unhealthy and I needed to get out of it. I should have developed some f****** semblance of a spine somewhere during those five years. I should have told him that I needed to go, and why. After a year of avoiding him and hoping that he would catch onto the fact that I no longer wanted to be his girlfriend, I wound up telling him anyway. I will never forget the sound of his voice or the look on his face. Instead of handling it like an adult with any sense of morality, I chickened out.
