I have a friend here at school — let’s call him Harrison — who was dating a girl we’ll call Brittney.
The relationship was pretty serious and they looked really happy together.
One day, Harrison got a break-up text from Brittney out of the blue. They were together for almost two years and it ended with one simple text message.
To me, a particular C-word comes to mind when I hear of people who do that kind of thing: coward.
I do not understand why some people have to hide behind the screen of technology to do something that should be done in person. Breaking up with someone will obviously have a large impact on the person who is getting broken up with.
So why would someone want to make the experience even more unbearable than it already is by not doing it in person?
Now, my opinion on this matter is a little foggy, considering I have been single for a while. However, that doesn’t mean that I have not had a “breakup text” moment.
Back in Grade 12, I was talking to a girl I’m going to call Heroin, because the feeling I got around her was as addictive as it was deadly. For a few months we were getting really close in an intimate way to the point where most people thought we were going to be dating.
But then, on a trip to Niagara Falls, where I was planning to ask her to prom and possibly to be my girlfriend, she avoided me for most of the night. When I texted her to ask why she was avoiding me, she dropped the bomb on me that caused an explosion in my heart.
When you send a breakup text, it may seem simple and easy. It saves the time and energy of having to deal with actual emotions when doing it in person. But once that text is sent, your character is forever marked as cowardly.
For most of this piece, I’ve been focusing on girls who take the coward’s way out in a relationship, but I also know guys who don’t have the courage to breakup in person. I know a guy, we can call Paul, who was seeing a girl we can call Meg. He broke up with her over text after they were a “thing” for close to a year.
And remember Heroin? Six months before she served my heart on a silver platter, she had the exact same thing happen to her.
The main point here is that a text to breakup with someone is not the way to end a relationship. If you have any human decency, you will do it in person.
Whoever you are breaking up with will probably hate you for doing it, that comes with the territory.
But at least they might respect you a small bit for having the courage to do it face-to-face.
However, if there is a situation where you can’t do it in person (distance, for example), a phone call is just as good. For example, if distance is an issue you should call instead of being a coward and texting “it’s over.”
Breaking up is hard to do, but it will be harder to live through life as a snivelling coward who hides behind technology instead of being a decent human being.