Sometimes, you date a jerk. Doesn't have to be a boyfriend, either. Girlfriends can be jerks. It just happens. You somehow stumble upon the reality that you are, in fact, dating a big old butt hole. It's possible your family and friends knew first. It's possible that your sly significant other managed to disguise that jerky attitude. The point is, it happens. It's okay. Once you discover the truth, you start feeling things, doing things, and experiencing things – things like these.
1 You Realize How Much Better You Are without Him
That is, you figure out that when you're not with your personal jerk, you are generally better. You're better without her/him.
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2 You Start to Understand Your Worth
So it dawns on you that you're worth more than this. You're better than this. You deserve better than this. You don't want to spend all your time with a jerk.
3 You Find Yourself Again
Gradually, you discover who you were before that negativity invaded your life so insidiously. You remember the things that made you happy – and you remember how to be happy.
4 You Start to Hang out with Friends You Didn't before
You need to get some positive forces in your life. Besides, if you've ever stopped hanging out with people you like because of your partner, you know how wonderful it feels to reconnect.
5 Family Time is More Important to You
Again, you need something positive in your life. You need to surround yourself with people who love you unconditionally. Mind you, this can apply to your biological family or your logical one.
6 You Finally Start to Look for Someone Who Appreciates You
Inevitably, once enough is enough, you realize you need to step away and start looking for something better.
7 You Start to Ignore Your Jerky Ex's Calls
This may or may not result in some jerky messages.
8 … and Texts
And jerky texts, too. In fact, this will most definitely happen.
9 … and Facebook Messages
Ditto your DMs. If you're really sick of the ish, you might even go on a blocking spree, just to ward off all the vitriol.
10 You Remember What It Felt like to Be around Nice People
Niceness is so underrated. Why aren't more people just nice?
11 It Feels Kind of Heavenly
You start to relax. You're not always second guessing yourself and judging what you say. You don't have to wait for the other shoe to drop.
12 Dating Feels Right Again
Again, all that tension is gone. You're not wondering what kind of jerk behavior you're going to see next.
13 You Even Let Your Dates Pamper You a Bit
And you finally remember what it feels like to be pampered, which is even more blissful.
14 The Jerk Starts to Get Jealous at All of Your Social Media Updates
Too bad, so sad. Sucks to be you.
15 You Realize What It's like to Have Someone Care about You
You know, really care about you – by not behaving badly or saying really awful, heinous things.
16 You Finally Know What It's like to Have Someone Take Care of You
Because jerks always end up being kind of selfish.
17 You Vow to Never, Ever Date a Jerk Again
NEVER AGAIN.
Dating a jerk is embarrassing because jerks are embarrassing. Freeing yourself from that kind of toxicity, though, that's just aces.
