That “here’s the life I’ve always longed for” picture with the dog staring at a group of dogs playing always gets to me. I was really isolated for a long time as a child/teen due to family issues and trauma etc. and one thing I learned from my breakup was that I’m willing to take a lot of shit if it means feeling accepted and like I have a found family. A lot of what I grieved for after my breakup wasn’t my ex at all but the situation of having their family (which was very like, well-adjusted upper middle class and stable) support as well as having our own little “family” and home. My ex could never understand why I would get so emotional over things like eating dinner with their family or having a little casual get-together with friends. It just broke down a lot of walls I’d put up over time to defend myself from how painful the reality of my loneliness/family shit was. Like the fact that their mom supported them academically, made sure if they took an interest in a hobby that they had access to music lessons or did family kayaking outings or whatever. People will say “you have to be your own stability” to me and that’s true and I’m trying to find my way back to that but it’s a lot easier to say that when your family has your back and you were raised in a stable household with steady friendships where you felt supported. I’m not trying to sound self-pitying but this is a huge journey I’m undertaking and it’s quite intense piecing all of this together so I can build resilience for the future