The surprising gift I got from my broken heart

It was more cliché than you can imagine – we met at a poetry reading. He walked up to me right after I read and told me how inspired he was. Four weeks later, we bumped into each other at a festival, got a drink, and laughed our asses off. We were inseparable shortly after – going for drinks, planning day dates and sharing inside jokes that no one else quite understood. In short, we were that couple.

Until we weren’t. Which, by the way, was not how I wanted the story to pan out. I wanted the cheesy dates at the pumpkin patch, a permanent cuddle buddy throughout the winter, and someone to help chase away the daily struggles of life. As a result, I fell fast and when he wasn’t there to catch me, the ground hit me hard.

On a miserable Monday he texted me at work and that was the end. Although we hadn’t dated for long, I found myself crying in my car and cursing myself for wearing mascara. If the world had just warned me that I would be broken up with that day I wouldn’t have done my eye make-up at all.

It would have been easy for me at this point to fall into a slump – I found (what I thought was) an amazing guy, we fell in love, and just like that the world took him away. Or, worse, he decided to walk away. My heart was shattered.

But as I got home from work that day, there was a gift on my doorstep with my name on in it. Inside the carefully wrapped gift bag, there was a card from my best friend describing what an amazing woman I am. Of course, there was a box of chocolates for good measure.

Another friend from out of town called me when I told her the news – and like any great friend would, she defended the silver lining by reminding me that a guy who drops me on a random Monday is not the type of guy worth my precious time. She understood my heartache, but she also gave me a low down of the facts – plainly, he was there until he wasn’t, and I was more deserving of a guy who could at least dump me in person when I wasn’t at work.

That day, I cried, but for so many reasons other than just a broken heart. I cried because I was touched when my best friends were waiting there to pick me up when things didn’t turn out the way I hoped they would. Not only did they lend an ear, but they took time out of their day to remind me of my importance in their lives and their importance in mine.

Break-ups are hard when you put your entire soul into a relationship. They open past scars and make you question your confidence and your ability to be loved. Still, it is much easier to cope when your best friends are on standby, ready to remind you about all the wonderful things you still have going in your life, to point out your worth, and to lift you up so you can keep on going.

If nothing else, I learned that maybe the best clichés are the ones that involve your bestie giving you chocolate and watching cheesy chick flicks as you cry about how much you are going to miss him. That is a cliché I don’t mind being a part of. If you have ever been the friend waiting to pick up the pieces of your best friend’s broken heart, please know that you mean more to us than words can say. It may have taken a broken heart to make me realize that, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise after all.

Monica Noelle Simon started writing long diary entries in fourth grade and has been writing ever since. A 25-year-old girl from Scranton, Pa., Monica uses her writing to make sense of relationships, life struggles and much more. You can read more of her writing at http://wordsbymnoelle.wordpress.com. 

[Image via Universal Pictures]