A break up story or two

I got an unexpected letter from a penpal I’ve been writing to for about a year.  We’ve been sending back and forth regularly, exchanged Christmas packages- been having a good time and all- so I never suspected it was a break up letter.  In fact it WAS a break up letter!  It was all very grown up, “It’s not you, it’s me- I’m too busy, too distracted, I’ve lost the joy of letter writing, I’m closing my PO Box, don’t write back!” Well- there’s that!  You know when someone breaks up with you, and they say all the grown up polite things to say, but part of you still wonders, did I do something wrong?  It got me thinking about all the times that someone broke up with me, and the different types of breakups. 

There is:

1. It’s not you, it’s me.

2. It’s definitely you, go away.

3. We’ve changed, it’s just not the same anymore.

4. The situation has changed, it’s not sustainable.

And of course

5. Ghosting- just avoiding the other person completely. Can you think of any other break up types?  Do you have a breakup story that doesn’t break your heart you want to share?  :) 

Here’s another break up example: One day I was getting home when these two Latter-day Saints missionaries came up and asked if I had time to talk about Jesus.  I said I did, and we went into the house to chat with my husband.  They were very nervous young men who stumbled through their information, then sweated a good bit as we asked them all manner of off-script questions about their faith, their belief system, their understanding of scripture etc.  After about an hour they said, "It was a pleasure talking to you, may we come visit with you again this time next week?” We said, "Yes, please do.”  They did not look relieved. The next week, at the appointed time, two new missionaries showed up.  They explained it was a normal rotation, but these two young men were far more confident than the previous two.  They told us things, we didn’t believe those things, we told them things, they told us they didn’t believe those things . . .  a good time was had by all, and after an hour, they said, ‘It was a pleasure talking to you, may we come visit with you again this time next week.”  We said, “Yes, please do,” and they walked away with a plan to convert us.  It went on like this for about a year.  Every once in a while we’d get a new missionary, but one of the pair was always there to break  the new one in and warn him about us. They were trying to convert us, we were trying to convert them, we all knew it was an excellent exercise in patience  and persuasion and planned our next meeting with a smile.    Eventually, after about a year we got a no-nonsense missionary.  He was not having it.  After two visits with us he said, “I don’t think this is working out for us, coming to see you is not the best use of our resources, so this will be our last visit.”  So- that’s how the LDS broke up with us.  They never came back.  I think we may have been black listed.