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How to Pick Up the Pieces from a Breakup

From my recent episodes, I’m picking up the pieces to move on. While I’m on it, I’m writing down how I’m doing it, just in case they are helpful for anyone in the future.

DISCLAIMER: These are what I do for myself now. They may or may not apply well to you, so decide well on how you’re going to deal with your breakup.

  1. Make yourself let go of the relationship

    Reckon the fact that it’s over. If you can’t, do something that make you know it’s over. Get clarifications from him, or his friends. Think over what happened and reason things out for yourself. You might end up thinking that he has a reason that he can’t tell you for doing it, or that he can’t stand some part of you. Whichever that you concluded, make sure you’re able to give up on the relationship. The best one for me is still thinking that he can’t stand some parts of me. That reminds me of what Marilyn Monroe said, “If you can’t stand the worst part of me, you don’t deserve the best part of me.”

  2. Cry

    Crying is a way to relief yourself. Do not think that a man must not cry like a woman. You can cry, be it alone or with your close friends. If you are like me, feeling embarrassed to cry in front of your friends, or have no close friends to cry to, then listen to melancholy songs or soppy series or movies, and cry on them. It feels better, even if you are not crying for the loss, but for the movies.

  3. Do something meaningful

    Do not give up of your daily lives by living like a zombie. Just because you had a breakup doesn’t mean your life is done. You still have to live, so live your life to the fullest. Do something meaningful. Do something that brings you value. E.g. go to a gym more often to shape up yourself, go for more sports events to exercise more, learn to swim or cook or dive or Photoshop or anything that you have always wanted to learn. Productivity is the key here. Make sure you gain something out of the things you do. Don’t let the loss turning you haggard or obese or skinny or anyway you don’t want to be.

  4. Continue looking for the right guy

    Having yourself totally letting go of the relationship, you can move on the continue looking for the right guy. You may still think about him and that’s okay because you have gotten used to having him in your life. But you know it’s over and it’s time to move on. Look for someone that deserve you more. Have outings. But when you have to decide whether to proceed into a relationship with the new guy, make sure you’re completely off from your previous relationship.

The End of Episode 3

As much as I’m reluctant to, I have to admit this is the end of my third relationship.

Despite I said I should let things flow on their own, I couldn’t stand the silence and the uncertainty.

I texted him again this afternoon.

He responded quick enough. But it was a no.

We cleared things up, and established that the call for breaking up was due to anger in both of us. But he was adamant about not getting back together.

“A good horse will never return to graze on grass that it has already passed by,” he brought up this Chinese proverb. He said I was four days late.

So I tried to clear off the charges, telling him that I wanted to make it up for him the very next night after we called for breaking up. He finally understands, but still refused to come back to me.

I’ve never seen him so unapproachable before. I know he’s determined this time. Knowing he’s very unlikely to come back for me again, I decided to change my strategy—instead of trying to move him, I’m going to make him know his shortcomings that I couldn’t tolerate. I tried to use the least offensive words to make him understand his shortcomings that get on my nerve which caused the argument and the breakup. After a really long writeup, I got the message through him. He understands what I was trying to convey, but he was still holding up to be separated. He said I deserve better and wished me well.

He doesn’t seem to be angry with me anymore after all my explanations. So all I can think of is that he was trying to make it easier for me by separating with me. By breaking up, I don’t have to go through a lot of things that I need to do for the relationship e.g. preparing myself to be relocated with him etc. I can no longer explain what could be the reason because it’s clear to me that he still loves me.

I remember he told me that he loves me a lot more than I love him. I want to believe that he’s trying to be noble and doesn’t want me to go through the hardship with him.

I wanted to ask him not to be noble. But on the second thought, I decided to cover it up for him. I pretended that I knew there were something about me that he doesn’t like but he wouldn’t tell me, and that he was breaking up with me for himself. I guess I have to appreciate his love by accepting his gestures of goodwill, much like how I would want him to do when I do something for us.

I have not given up on him, but I have to let him to let me go. It makes him feel better. Otherwise given our circumstances, we would have to go through a lot and that would give him a lot of pressure.

I told him that I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love him, and that I will try to move on but probably won’t be able to meet someone that I love as much as I love him. Then I wished him well and asked him to take care before signing off.

He replied that he loves me a lot too, but we are not good for each other, at least at this point of time. That kinda reaffirms that the reason he wants to be separated from me is that he wants to save me the troubles of being with him.

Or maybe all these are just my own assumptions that my subconscious mind came up with to make myself feel better?

I have no idea. At least, I can convince myself to let go now, although it’s going to take some time.

Being Attached and Then Detached

A lot has happened while I was away from this blog. I got into a dramatic relationship.

A and I were chatting well and all. It was all fine when we had dinner on our first meeting. It was only until the end of the date that we turned sour. After that, we’d never contacted each other for months.

One fine day, after burying him in my memories for long, he suddenly came into my mind. I missed him. So I asked him out. After the second date, we started to like each other.

Until a few weeks later, he told me that he’s going abroad to further his studies in September. I knew I can’t maintain a long distance relationship. So I decided to stay away from him as soon as I could before I fell for him further.

So I stopped seeing A. I started to date E. Probably due to the urge to get my feelings away from A, I went into a relationship with E too quickly. A eventually got to know that I went for someone else. And that’s the time he realised that he really loves me. I’ve caused him a heartbreak.

And as it’s bound to happen, I started to realise I don’t love E enough to be in a relationship with him. I couldn’t lie to myself that I don’t love E, and I started to realise E was mostly after my body. So I decided to be frank with E that I was wrong about my feelings to him. But E still wanted to try. He suggested to have some time for us to cool down while he was away for vacation before jumping into separation, although eventually, we broke up.

Then A got better and we started to hang out like friends, at the same time I kept my distance from falling for him. I started chatting with new guys on Grindr again and I got to know D. D had a really bad relationship and was losing hope in love and gay guys before knowing me. Probably because of my obvious not-for-fun tagline, D probably thought he has found someone different and probably wanted a rebound from me. I thought he was a good candidate too and started investing emotions. But shortly after a few meetings, D came clear that he didn’t want to be in a relationship for good. I’m not sure whether it was an excuse to reject me or not, but I was really hurt thinking that that was probably karma for me.

A being the closest gay friend of mine of that time, was the only person whom I thought could listen to me to relief my pain. But when he heard that I was trying to date new guys, it was another heartbreak for him. He started to avoid me again.

After thinking over what happened since I got to know A, and then E and D, I finally realised that A is the one I love all this while. E and D are really just people that I happened to know when I needed to run away from my feelings towards A. And having broken A‘s heart twice, undoubtedly he has the same feelings for me too.

I knew I couldn’t avoid this any more. We both are in love with each other, but the only problem was that I did not have enough courage to be in a relationship with him because he is not going to be here for long. So I started to think over a lot of possibilities, and finally built up the courage to be in a relationship with him, and decided to go abroad with him when he has to leave. It was not an easy decision to make, because I’ve finally made up my mind to settle down in KL before I knew him. This relationship changed my entire life plan.

But he was hurt by me twice, making him hesitant to be in a relationship with me. After putting some efforts to court him, I finally moved him and we officially started our relationship. We had great times together for over a month. Throughout the month, there were a few arguments over really petty matters. I thought they are normal and they are part of the process of understanding each other.

Until the most recent argument, that it became clear to me, that he can never let himself ‘lose’ in an argument. He always wants to be at the winning side, regardless of whose fault it was. Even when he was in fault, he never apologises until it became an issue i.e. I raised the issue when I felt very uncomfortable for his non-apologetic attitude. And when he apologises (or rather being forced to), he has 101 reasons to defend himself, effectively renders his apologies as insincere ones. For someone who over-thinks a lot like me, his untimely, insincere apologies often did not make things better as I’ve already over-thought a lot of negative possibilities, in a way making the issues bigger. For this time, I over-thought of what I’ve done for him—toning down my temper, learning to be a romantic boyfriend, revamping my entire life plan just to be with him etc., in exchange I got the response of ‘I did not ask you to change for me’—a total non-appreciation of what I’ve done for our relationship.

“This is exactly why I don’t want you to ‘sacrifice’ for me,” he added, “I don’t want you to blame me for making you change.”

He doesn’t want to be accountable for what I’ve done for our relationship. He thinks we both should just be ourselves and both should accept each other wholly without the need of change (or rather only him be himself and I should change myself to accept him wholly). How could I possibly tolerate his temper without changing myself to? Total oxymoron.

And when I found that we couldn’t keep calm to talk to each other at all because both of us were in really bad temper, I called it off. What surprised me is that he threatened to break up if I don’t pick up his call or call him. Breakup is a word I would never mentioned in arguments but it came out so easily from him. Together with his prior questioning of whether we are compatible or not, it makes me suspect that he has it in mind all this while, waiting for a chance to say it out.

Being upset and disappointed, I agreed.

Immediately on Facebook, he publicly asked me to return his shirt that he left with me and wished me all the best without mentioning my name.

Boom. It’s real. With public announcement.

On the very next day, immediately after long hours of work, I was hoping to see him to talk things through. As much as I didn’t want to be at the ‘losing’ end again, I knew I’m always the losing party in this relationship. After much hesitations, I asked him out. I suggested to meet him at his place, and I would drive him to a place where I promised to bring him to. I didn’t tell him where I was going to bring him to, because I wanted to let him know that I still remember what I’ve promised to him and to move him with my sincerity.

Too tired, he said. Long enough after I’ve left his house, he asked for another place nearer to his house, but I was already home. Yet again, he was being all himself. I was tired too but as tired as I was, I still wanted to see him so badly to talk things through, to move him. Not to mention, I was the one who was supposed to drive to the place I promised to bring him to, not him. It seems to me he can never appreciate things I want to do for him, and yet despite trying hard to, I really can’t recall a thing which he has done something that shows a little bit of sacrifice and brings us closer. He’s all about himself and being himself.

I’m not going to try already for now. I’ve tried hard enough. I’ve done enough. I’ve contributed enough. If breaking up doesn’t bother him a bit, then probably he’s not the right person for me anyway.

Tests

A relationship is like a series of tests; for some of the tests, if you ever fail them once, you’ll never have a chance to retake them again; and for some of them, failing them would mean the end of the relationship.

Choose your subject wisely so you don’t fail the tests.

rotiboy’s Back

After deserting my blog for some time in order to help myself getting over him, I think I’m finally not clinging over the past any more. So here I am, back to write again.

This could be a delusion of mine, I don’t know how but somehow I’ve come to the conclusion that a relationship that I appreciate, when it’s written out before it gets stable, won’t end up well. It could be because by writing it out here, I would start to put some kind of expectation and things always tend to go extra bumpy for me when there’s too much expectation.

All of this delusion of mine reminds me of the wuwei theory of Taoism. I have not been able to understand how this concept works. So finally there’s something I can put into practice in my real life that relates to this concept.

So how am I now? This song pretty much summarises it all.