Let 2017 be the year you wish him well, and the year that you finally have the strength to say a last goodbye to him.

I know it’s easier said than done. It’s not a walk in the park and it’s not as simple as just thinking to yourself, ‘I’m letting him go this year’.

You have to do the work. You have to give yourself the closure you never got from him. You have to give yourself the proper goodbye that he never could give you. And you need to do it for you – not for him.

Letting him go does not mean forgetting him. It doesn’t mean you won’t ever miss him, or won’t ever reminisce about the beautiful times you had with him. It doesn’t mean you are going to erase him. I don’t ever think you can.

Letting go just means finding acceptance within yourself and within your heart. Acceptance of the past. Acceptance of what happened. Acceptance of how it ended, and acceptance of him not being in your life anymore.

Let 2017 be the time in your life where you can look at your past and acknowledge that you can’t take anything back, no matter how much you want to. Let your goodbye with him be final. Let your story end. Let it be.

Let 2017 be the time in your life where you can still look back fondly on those sweet memories. Where you can still look at his pictures and miss him. Where you can still remember how it felt like for him to kiss you. But let it be the time where you take time telling yourself that you will be ok without him. Where you cry quietly through the night, slowly coming to terms with not ever having the closure that you truly wanted.

Let it be the year you find the power within your heart, to keep on going.

Let it be the year you acknowledge that you will never be the same. Let it be the year you realize that you can’t go back into the past and get him back. Let it be the year you come full circle, in the realization that he will never be your best friend again.

Let the forever part of him leave your heart. Let the happy ending part of him leave your soul. And let the ‘boyfriend’ part of him leave your mind.

He isn’t coming back. And if he does, it won’t ever be like it was. So, you can miss him. You can wish him well. You can cry about him. You can long for him. But don’t make him into something greater than he is. Don’t make him into something that is irreplaceable.

Please, know, that the longer you stay wishing for him to come back to you, the longer you stay wasting your time. Let 2017 be the year you stop wishing and start doing. Let it be the year you stop looking back at him like he was the greatest thing to ever exist, and start looking at yourself that way.

Let the past go. Let your relationship go. It is gone. It is over.

And I know that’s hard to stomach. I know that’s hard to read and to hear. But let 2017, be the year that you can learn that, that you can feel heartache, but know deep down that you will survive.

Let 2017 be the year you let that chapter in your life close for good. And let it be the year, where you are able to open up a new chapter in your life and finally exhale, with the hope of starting over.