Hi Andrew —

Believe it or not, tonight is the first time I had the courage to check in on the responses — for some reason I feel drawn to respond to yours and defend myself against some of the others.

First of all, I really didn’t mean it as blanket advice that everyone should follow all the time. But what I remember about that relationship is that everyone around me felt like he was so nice and so perfect and I felt like I would be letting them down to end things with him.

Probably a better title would have been something like “You don’t have to marry someone just because they’re nice.

I know that I was not at my best when I was 18 — but I bet all of those other people calling me out as a bitch for mistreating him probably weren’t either.

I think he probably does have a really nice life now, with a partner that he is happy with, which I alluded to in the story. And just like I’ve learned and grown, I would guess that he has too. I really didn’t mean to trash him, just point out that different people need different things out of a relationship.

Thanks for reading and good luck to you.