Finals are long over, your school boxes are unpacked (maybe..) and now that you’ve reconnected with all your *~hometown friends~* summer seems to be about to start up in full swing. As much as you long for campus and miss the friends you had to temporarily bid goodbye (even if you visit them frequently) it’s refreshing to spend time with the some of the people that know you best. There is a sense of comfort being home in familiarity, but beware! Just because you’re in a place where you spent time during your “previous life” there is a slippery slope that can be tumbled down if you begin to stunt your growth as you fall back into old routines, aka, old boyfriends. Here’s only 4 reasons (don’t make me continue) why rekindling a hometown flame is just going to get you burned:
1. Don’t look like a hypocrite.Whether the breakup was peaceful and mutual, or a straight up soap-opera-esque disaster, you probably ranted about it to, well, everyone. Even if you kept the language mild, your friends and family remember the hours you whined, ranted, complained, and maybe bashed this hometown (insert name calling here), and will roll their eyes in detest when he surprisingly appears the second week your home from school. Don’t be that girl.
2. Your Parents Probably Don’t Like HimGoing off of reason #1, your parents (as much as you might disagree) always, no matter what, have your best interest in mind. They hate to see you upset, and the fact that they probably saw even a little sign of mood change after your previous breakup, they biologically are on #TeamYou regardless of the situation. Don’t make things awkward and bring him back around, forcing your parents to pretend (if you’re your lucky) to re-like him.
3. Summer is for Friends-Who-Do-Stuff-Together (FUN)Whether your friends from home go to school in the same city or 2,000 miles away, college is busy, and getting to squeeze time into your agenda to be able to see your friends as much as you would like is borderline impossible. Maybe if your summer is 100% totally free, there could be time to work in the dreaded balance of ‘boyfriend vs. friend’ time, but if you’re like many college students, you’re traveling, making time for family, working one or even multiple places saving up for the next semester ahead, and trying to make time to see everyone and be everywhere might just drive you off the ledge. It’s not to say that hanging out with your guy is not/less enjoyable than hanging out with your friends, but…..it usually might be, and this is what you have all been anticipating all year for. (Side note: your friends don’t want to hang out with your boyfriend all the time either, so just cross that option right off your list).
4. “There is a reason the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror.”Or how about, “there is so much more left to the story you could get to if you stop rereading the same chapter” ? Regardless of the amount of quotes you could find on Pinterest, they are all telling you the same thing: there’s more out there, and a much better fish in the sea. There’s great serenity in accepting what has happened in your life has happened for a certain reason, and as much as your relationship might have been great at the time, if it was meant to work out, you would have probably never called it off in the first place. Let that sink in for a little while. Although it’s fair to thank the past for what it’s brought you, as well as what you’ve learned, there is great satisfaction in knowing while one thing did not work out the way you once hoped, there are brighter days and better humans left to cross paths with. Don’t glue yourself to the starting line, you’re too strong of an individual to not even run the course.