“What Broke Your Heart Completely?” 30 Stories (26/30)

I married my college sweetheart after dating for 5 years through college. Then, 6 months later she had an affair on me. The affair lasted 8 months before I discovered it was happening. My life fell to pieces.

Then I decided to change things. I left the US and moved abroad. After living in a foreign country for two years I met a woman. We fell in love and she was the thread that kept me sane and connected to society. After her and I were married I discovered my mother was going through cancer at back in the states. It was also during COVID, which meant traveling was near impossible. Not to mention that I was unable to afford being able to travel. I could not afford to leave my wife behind and quit my job. 

Then, the next summer, I discovered my wife was having an affair with a business man in Singapore.

This crushed me to a point where I don’t like to be around people.

Currently, my life is good. I spent some very difficult alone time hiking 3500 km through mountains along the east coast of the US.

In that alone time I learned more about myself than I’ve ever known. I also dealt with my demons. 

I’m still very much an introvert and prefer being alone, but I have a good wife now. She’s incredibly talented. She deserves to have a man who is not broken and loves her unconditionally. I’m not that man yet, but I’m doing everything I can to become that man.

The biggest lesson I learned is the things that make life difficult are stepping stones that lead to other opportunities. I’ve also picked up a mantra that I say to myself during good times and bad times.

“Everything is as it should be”.