It’s the first day of freshman year, and I just moved to Hartland from West Allis about a month ago. I have zero friends. A cute boy I have never talked to walks up to me during lunch and asks me to go to homecoming with him. I don’t know anything about him, but he is cute so I say yes.
About a month passes and some other girl has her tongue down my boyfriend’s throat. He doesn’t even tell me about it, someone else does. But I stay with him. After three months his best friend tells me he is laying in his bed with some other girl, a different girl than the first time. After ten months, a girl messages me on Facebook and tells me that she had sex with him. He lies to me and says that he didn’t and she is lying, and I believe him.



It is our three year anniversary and I am a senior now— I still have no friends because he never let me have any. I passed up a modeling job because he didn't want me to do it. I don’t wear yoga pants because he gets enraged when I do.



It has taken me three years to hit the point where I can't deal with him anymore and realize this is not a normal relationship—so I decide to make my life better and break up with him. He calls me crying every day. He follows me around school, crying. He sends me eight page texts proclaiming his love and telling me how much he is crying. I feel indifferent.
This experience has made me a strong, independent person—and I now realize how important it is to be in control of my life. I have made new friends and I now do what is best for me. I forgave him and all those girls because they made me who i am today, and because I have realized that being mad and holding grudges causes a heavy heart, limits friends ,and does not allow a person to have control of their life. Having a horrible boyfriend for so long made me learn to look at everything in a positive light and turn bad things good. Being cheated on hurts, but getting hurt factors strength and caused me to be nicer to people. I know what I want in life,what my expectations are (they have risen significantly), and learned to set high goals and focus on them until they are reached. I am the happiest, most cheerful, and positive person I know now thanks to him.