Letting go of an 8-year-long one-sided crush (or love)
I never knew I was in love for 8 years. And the time I realized I was in love- It was time for me to let him go to someone else I barely knew, To someone else I was insecure about..
So, there's this guy I've been low-key crushing on for eight years. Everyone knew I was crushing hard, maybe even him. But I never expressed about it, because I knew even if we got together, things wouldn't work out long-term. So, we stayed friends. Somewhere the crush feeling stayed the same, I never let it grow into anything beyond. It worked for some time, but as our friendship started becoming close, My feelings also faded (at least that's what I thought)
But still- I started having an on-and-off crush on him.. then a couple of years ago our friends got hitched, and my crush blew up around those times. All these feelings flooded back, even though I knew it was a dead end. I cried for like, days. After that, things cooled down between us. I guess we were both changing, growing in different directions, following our own dreams. And some days after even our friendship became distant.. That's when I realized we were outgrowing each other. And I wasn't able to accept I was outgrowing him. But I knew I had to make a choice, so I pulled back a bit, and our friendship became more distant. We didn't text much anymore..
For months and months nothing happened, But like 4 days back I had this dream where I desperately wanted him to be with me, even though we both knew it was impossible. The emptiness, the longing, the butterflies – all of it was intense in this dream. the following day I also had another dream, this time - he getting engaged to someone.
I texted him to laugh about it, but what he said felt like a bomb in my head. He said that he is in a relationship. I shut down for a few minutes. Still, I texted him how happy I was (I genuinely was) and was also enquiring about how he met her. But internally it was hard for me to process, again I cried a lot.
So I took time to process things... then I realized I was genuinely happy for him. He is a very good person, a pakka husband material. And ever since I've known him, I've only wished everything good for him.. But still, I had a - What about me? voice in my head. And I guess I felt sorry for myself because I never really allowed myself to explore these emotions. Also on the other hand I cherished this feeling (him).
And most importantly I never acknowledged this as something more than a crush, even though I knew it was. It was something more than a crush, but less than a full-fledged love. It took 8 years for me to accept I even had a little bit of love for him in me..
Now I know I have to let him go, it's heartbreaking now to even think about- letting him go.
To the man who I never said- I love you