Before I can get into why I made the decision to take back my ex, there's some back story you must hear before we talk about why. So strap yourself in and get ready for an emotional roller coaster that is my dating life. Be prepared, though — all of this will apply to you.

It all started when we were 17, well 16 if you count the obnoxious amount of flirting our friends had to endure through math class. We had known each other practically our whole lives thanks to our small town, but this was the first time we'd actually became friends and gotten to know one another. From working on classwork and homework together to talking about our families and sports we went from friends to something a little more. But from the awkward teens we were, we both didn't say anything to the other about these feelings until someone called us out on it.

So again it all started when we were 17 and his little sister asked him when he was going to ask me out and I overheard. That was when I told him how I felt and practically forced him to come over to watch a movie, and the rest was history. We started dating winter of senior year of high school and together we had to deal with much more than most 17 and 18-year-olds have to.

Our families had a history together that didn't make starting a relationship all that easy. I would tell you it was a romantic "Romeo and Juliet" story, but I would be lying. My younger brother had a middle school relationship with his younger sister and somehow because of that his stepmother had a sour taste in her mouth whenever our names got brought up in conversation. So when he told his family about our relationship her first words were, "Why on earth would you date that?" Yup, I was a that, not a her, a that.

On top of dealing with a stepmom who completely loathed me for god knows what reason, we started our relationship in the middle of figuring out what on earth we were doing post high school. He was a baseball player who loved the sport more than life itself and wanted to play ball in college. I was a girl hell-bent on leaving the state and seeing the world. You could say we sort of had different goals but we didn't care because it wasn't happening right then.

Then our whole worlds came to a screeching halt. January 2011 we went to three funerals and buried three of our friends. The worst part was because of the hatred his stepmom had for me, he couldn't even hold my hand through them. I couldn't even hug him afterwards in the church. This opened our eyes to life a lot sooner than most high school seniors have to.

Before graduation, I love you's were said, sappy movie dates watching Disney movies happened regularly and of course we went to our senior prom (looking fly as hell I might add). Looking back it's like the time flew by before we actually realized it and then we graduated. He was going to school in Grand Rapids and I was going to school in Indiana, it was our last summer together before everything changed. That summer zoomed by with beach days and bon fires and the next thing I knew I was saying goodbye.

We stayed together through stuff people our age thought wasn't worth our time: Long distance, fighting, family drama, jealousy. We had a relationship most people envied, one I thought was unbreakable. That was until one day, after three years together, we broke.

Three years of I love you's, three years of holding his hand every time we were in the car, three years of laughs suddenly were gone. The worst part was in my head not only were three years gone, but my future too. Because I was so young I had gotten lost in my relationship, I had forgotten who I was without him. I went to a dark place where my friends and family worried about me. It took me months to smile again and I couldn't even tell you why. My favorite part of that black hole I got sucked into was that I lost friends because I was being selfish during my heartbreak.

After I got to a place where I was just ok with who I was I had rebound after rebound. I treated guys like garbage because I could. I knew what I was doing wasn't ok but I did it anyway. I kept making wrong decision after wrong decision until ultimately I ended up moving to my parents' new house and transferring to a small college where my dad is still currently employed.

I took this time to really find out who I was in a new setting, surrounded by people who didn't even know my name. I started playing varsity lacrosse and focused on bettering myself because I could. I traveled abroad and started making goals for what I wanted to do when I graduated from college. I found myself again, that was when I started to hurt less whenever I thought about him.

After celebrating my 23rd birthday with my new friends and teammates, when I was least expecting it, his name popped up on my phone. Calling me my cheesy nickname from high school and asking how I'd been. That stopped me in my tracks for days, do I respond, do I ignore it? After waiting what felt like an eternity I responded and got the apology I had waited three years for. Talking to him was like no time had passed and I finally remembered what it felt like to be happy. After talking nonstop for about a month he drove 466 miles to see me at school in my new homeland of Kentucky. After about five minutes of being in the same room as each other we both just knew that being together was the right thing to do, so be became official (FBO for all you young ones out there).

Now here's where the rest of the world comes in. If you have ever thought I would love to get back together with my ex, but your friends, family and even acquaintances give you that weird judgmental look and ask if you're brain damaged here's what you need to do to get passed it.

First of all, they're all going to think it is a dumb idea for you to rekindle your relationship for a very long time. Your ex broke your heart and nine times out of 10 it isn't a pretty sight. The aftermath of the atomic bomb that was your relationship left you in pretty horrific shape, causing you to revert back to your caveman-like instincts and hide in your blanket cave only to emerge for your basic necessities, mainly food. They had to deal with all your tears, hopelessness and depression in the wake of atomic bomb (insert your ex's name here). They helped put you back together when you had fallen apart and thought you lost your pieces, and frankly they don't want to do it again for the same person. They don't trust your ex to treat you right and it is going to take a lot for them to even consider liking and trusting them again. Like my mom says, "If someone hurts my baby they're dead to me. I don't like them, I won't like them and if you take them back it will take me years of them making you constantly happy and proving they aren't going anywhere for me to even consider jumping on that bandwagon again. They are your ex for a reason."

Next you will have that awkward conversation with people that starts with, "How long have y'all been dating?" Uhhhhhh I don't know we only went off once but it was three years long, so am I allowed to say we've been dating on and off for 7 years now? You're going to have to think of what you're going to say to that because it will be asked about a million times. Also does the clock start over or do you just keep adding time?

But here is the biggest thing you will need to know if you are thinking that you want to be with an ex. Own your relationship. It is your relationship and at the end of the day it only involves two people. I don't want your judgmental looks when I tell you I am currently with my ex. I don't care about opinions of why he came out of the wood work to apologize to me when he did. I don't need you asking me about how he wasn't serious before what do I think has changed now. I am my own person, I trust my gut when it comes to who should be in my life. I am in this relationship because it makes me happy, I feel loved and I know beyond a doubt that this is the right thing for me. I love being in my relationship and I wouldn't want to share my life with anyone else, even if he is states away from me right now.

So if you are in a place like I was a few moons ago, trust your gut. If you honestly feel like your ex is uncharted territory you would like to get to know again, try. Your gut is usually right, so just trust yourself and don't let anyone change your mind.