the quarter life affair

"She's not even cute. I don't understand," she'd said, showing me a blurry photograph off Instagram.
"It's not about looks," I had said. There was nothing I could say that would make anything better.

I always used to say, it made me feel better when the last guy I was with moved on with someone who wasn't very fortunate looking. I could say, well at least I have that. And hopefully her personality would be terrible as well. That would be even better. But really, none of it matters, none of it really makes you feel any better because at the end of the day, they're with someone else.

I don't know what it's about. I don't know why we move on in the ways that we do, or why we "upgrade" or "downgrade" for lack of better phrases. All I know is, everything kind of works out the way it's supposed to, the way it has to. And some of the outcomes will be unpleasant, and we're not going to like it. Sometimes our greatest fears are realized.

But I don't know. Whatever happens after you were with someone, none of that discounts what you had while you were together. It's just, this is how it is now.

You make a series of decisions, and sometimes, this is where the story goes.

But your story's not over. It's just a hard bump in the road, you just have to get through. Work on yourself, don't mind others, and things will get better. I know this much.