Sometimes, we have to take a backwards step to realise just how far we’ve come and recently (annoyingly) that’s what I’ve done. It’s made me realise that something thats been left in my past, isn’t what I want in my future and if figuring that out while staring it straight in the face isn’t growth, then I don’t know what is.

Growing as a person establishes itself in many different ways and normally after a particularly difficult break up, we push ourselves to move on and grow at a faster pace than we’re necessarily ready for. When we’re so focused on pushing ourselves forward, we can become distracted from what we were moving on from in the first place, but when we go back to the root of the problem … sometimes it can really show us that the ‘convincing’ ourselves we no longer want it wasn’t actually necessary at all. When we’re face to face with our past, we can really see that it just isn’t for us anymore, without any fake convincing at all.

If you look back on the version of yourself from five years or so ago, you realise that back then you thought you were so established as a human being, that your views and thoughts on things were set in stone and that was it. Shall we all laugh at that together?

I can say with the utmost certainty, that what I wanted at the age of 21, would most definitely not tick my boxes now. Sometimes we can’t move on from the sensation of familiarity and I’ve realised now that for the last few years, that’s whats been happening to me. I got caught up in the idea that all I ever wanted from life had walked away from me and I would never find anything to compare to what I used to have, but god was I wrong!

The fact that I decided to drive myself all the way back to what I thought was square one of a situation, was honestly the best thing I could have ever done . It helped me to realise how far I’ve come and how much I’ve grown but above all else, it really showed me how much the things I want from life have changed.

My square one didn’t make me feel how I remembered, in fact, it made me think more of my future than my past, I was concerned that going back would resurface all the feelings I had years ago, but actually it didn’t, instead it made me open up more to the person I’ve been keeping at arms length, because I didn’t think they could compare to what I used to have and ultimately what I thought I wanted.

However, what I thought I wanted, was wrong. I partly craved familiarity, to be close to someone who at one time, was everything I ever wanted. But being close to them three years on, didn’t bring back the feeling that I thought it would. It didn’t hurt to leave, in fact, when I walked away I felt like I could finally breathe. It had given me closure, something that I’d been searching for in others for years.

It took this action, to finally realise I was better off where I am right now than where I was when was 21, when I thought I’d found everything I ever wanted. I no longer want the same things and to be honest, I’m bloody relieved. It was also a great feeling knowing how much I’d changed but my past had remained exactly the same.

It made me realise that I’ve let go and that I don’t need to keep making comparisons between something I had and no longer want and something I want but haven’t given myself the opportunity to fully have yet.

As cryptic as that sounds, ultimately, going back to square one was the best thing I could have done for myself.

So after going against the advice of all my friends, who told me going backwards was the biggest mistake I could ever make, I can say that although my friends are normally right, in this case my stubbornness to go after what I want, paid off.

Thank you square one, for being everything I no longer want.