Your ex deserves a thank you.

I know you probably think that I am crazy and have just jumped off the deep end, but think about how much your ex taught you.

They may have done you wrong, made you doubt yourself, cheated on you or worse, but they taught you a lot about yourself. They may have done a real number on you, but overall they helped you discover what you are truly made of.

When you take a trip down memory lane, it isn’t hard to see that in the end we all lose what we love. Any person that was a part of your past and taught you something about yourself deserves a thank you. A thank you is in order for all the good times and the bad. Yes, even the bad because through the bad times you learned some valuable things about yourself.

Thank them for loving you. Thank them for the moments where you were, without a doubt, the happiest you have ever been. They taught you that you are capable of being unapologetically happy and that you could be happy again.

Thank them for the nights in. The times where you didn’t have to look nice to go out and about on the town, the times where the both of you lounging on the couch for hours upon end were the greatest part of your day. Thank them for teaching you how to relax.

Thank them for teaching you to survive and pushing you to your breaking point. Even though you may have felt like you could never be happy again, you were. They showed you that no matter how dark things may have seemed, it was always possible to find some light.

Thank them for leaving you behind. You may have been an absolute mess or an easy target for one-night-stand seekers, but you made it through.

Thank them for putting you in a darker place full of bad decisions and poor life choices. It was you, every dark, twisted, ugly part of you. In breaking you down to the lowest you could go, you learned that you could build yourself back up.

Thank them for being wrong about you and giving you more confidence in yourself. They showed you that life isn’t fair and that you have to accept the things that are out of your control.

Thank them for ignoring you and, though you may have hated them for it, you were stronger. They saved you from yourself and taught you how to live in a world where they no longer existed.

Thank them for teaching you to let go and forgive. This can take a bit of time, but in the end, forgiving them and moving on will make you feel that much better.

Most of all, thank them for making you an even better person for the next person who comes along.