I am better man for learning from my mistake- Daniel 21

“I wished my girlfriend was more like her.”

After two years of dating my now ex, we started having a lot of issues in our relationship. It became really clear to me that we were simply not a good match. We were always fighting, even over the smallest of things, but I still felt like maybe we could work things out. My female coworker, who we always got along with swimmingly, became a sort of best friend. She was always giving me advice and talking through some things with me when my ex and I would fight. She would even grab a drink with me after work when I was upset. She was always so patient and understanding, and I wished my girlfriend was more like her.

“I cheated on her.”

Even though it started out totally platonic on both of our ends, I realized after a couple of months that I was developing feelings for her. One night, after getting drinks, we hooked up, and I ended things with my ex about a week later. What happened that night opened my eyes to how little I was invested in making my own relationship work. I’m not proud of cheating on my ex, and if I could go back, I would not do it again. It is not the way I would have wanted it to play out. I did not tell my ex, but the guilt ate me up. I knew I had messed up, and regardless of what had been happening in our relationship, no one deserved that.

“I’m still in love, and I’ve learnt to be better.”

Sometimes romantic feelings develop naturally without you seeking them out. Yes, the heart wants what it wants, but there was definitely a different way to go about it. I shouldn’t have hooked up with my coworker while still dating my ex. I should have first ended things with her and explored other things later. I also should have tried to put more effort into my actual relationship rather than run away from the issues we were having. In the future, I know what to do and how to handle relationship issues a bit better.