I found myself (28) not to long ago starring down the barrel of a loaded gun. I had been dating the same girl (26) for years, and everything was going to shit. Our sex life that had once been exciting had all but ended, our finances were a mess, and she had recently become jobless. I resented her, but was constantly advised by female friends and coworkers that a relationship was hard work, and that if I loved her, I'd stay. We'd been through so many firsts together, from college graduation, to her 21st birthday, to all the firsts of young adulthood; or history was deep.

Like a dumbass, I'd accepted everything negative about the relationship as part of adulthood. I often thought about the friends I no longer saw, and opportunities I'd missed out on. I wished I could do it over, but already being engaged, I worried about being looked down up on for trying to escape.

Its was only after I caught her cheating that it danwed on me. This was MY life. Not my friends and certainly not hers. I was the main character of my own story, and to sacrifice myself to appease a train wreck of an irrational dumbass, would be a waste of that life. I was better than this! I was better than her. I was intelligent, rational, and driven, and while she clearly needed me, I didn't need her.

She seemed genuinely shocked when I ended it, and tried to manipulate me into taking her back, but I saw through it. After it all ended, I reconnected with old friends, landed a promotion at my job, fixed my finances in a month, and got my life back.

At 28, I am now in the best shape of my life and dating a horney 20 year old girl who actually introduced me to this sub, and life couldn't be better. I've been given a second chance.