It’s hysterical really.

Throughout my relationship with my ex, I had to handle the constant backlash of either my relationship with him or my appearance. It bothered me while we were together, but then, when the relationship came to an end, I figured they would just back off and let us go our separate ways.

I was wrong, very very wrong.

You see, I took the standard steps that you would take when you get out a relationship, I deleted the pictures, changed my relationship status and began to piece myself back together. I decided to lean on my friends privately. I blocked him on social media, not because it was a bad situation, but because I no longer wanted that negativity in my life. I no longer wanted to be front and center with his friends and him.

It was a personal choice, I chose not to stay friends with my ex for the sole reason that I wanted to disassociate myself with his friends.

I have bigger fish to fry, I’m focusing on my photography career, my college career, my mental health and my social life, I choose not to fight for my relationship because it was going to end in a toxic way if I did. I don’t obsessively refresh my ex’s Instagram or Twitter, let alone his friends'. Sure, I will like a picture if it shows up in my feed, causally tap through their Snapchat stories, but I’m not commenting things that are directly about the situation between my ex and I. I’m also not stupid. I’m aware that the reason why you are taking screenshots of my Snapchats is that you want to put it in your group chat and talk about me.

Now that the back story is out there, here’s the thing: It doesn’t matter in reality, it will blow over.

However, please be civil, be an adult if your friend has gone through a breakup.

Understand that each person handles these things differently. Maybe one person bounced back and found someone else within a week, maybe the other spent hours replaying the situation over and over. Understand that the relationship is over - unless you are directly in between the couple you shouldn’t be commenting on the other parties post, there are bigger things to worry about. So please, think about what you are posting on someone page, think about how it looks on you as well as the person you are posting about.

Believe me life gets easier if you just stay in your own lane.