I'm 24 years old, and as to 4 weeks ago, I was in a 5 year relationship with my ex-girlfriend. The first 2 years of our relationship(and around 4 years of friendship before that) were in our home country, and the relationship was just perfect, things just worked, we connected in everything, we liked and enjoyed the same things, things were going great.
However, our home country is a very poor country in south america, and after 2 years of relationship, she decided to move to another country with her sister (still south america, but way better than our country, her sister had been living there for a few years already) I almost ended the relationship since I'm not a big believer of long distance relationships, but when I noticed she actually wanted to try it, it felt nice, knowing even in that situation she felt good enough in the relationship to try it.
And I said, why not? Worst case we break up in a few months after growing apart, which would make it less painful. Thing is, she started basically selling me the country, "There's always water here, electricity, internet is pretty fast, the country is beautiful, people are great" and I ended up deciding to move there too, I spent around 5-6 months playing World of Warcraft 17-18 hours a day to sell gold and be able to afford the trip (sorry about that wow players, minimum wage was like 10$ a week over there lol)
The day came, and I arrived, and things were still fucking great, even better than before. The country was beautiful, having basic services was crazy to me lol, but when I arrived, probably 20/21 years old, I started having these responsibilities I didnt have before, paying rent, services, etc. Which made me really anxious, because we were coming from a really bad place and I wanted us to have everything, I wanted to be able to give her everything, a way better life than in our home country.
And I said "Well, sentimentally the relationship is basically perfect, we argue like once a year, we're always having a great time, that would only leave the money/material side of things to be improved, so imma go all in on that" and I started working, working really really hard, I only had my english, so I started doing anything that came up, my first job was a remote job for a life insurance company in the US, they paid like 800$ a month which was a lot of money for me at the time.
But when I got this job, my anxiety and pressure started manifesting, and I spent probably the whole first month crying almost everyday, not eating, even vomiting sometimes from the fear of losing this job, not meeting expectations, not being good at it, not being able to give my girlfriend everything I wanted us to have, dissapointing her, even though she wasnt expecting anything or asked for anything.
I got really damn good at my job, in just a few months I was having the best results out of anyone in the company and developed new strategies and ideas that improved many processes by at least 50%. We went from sharing an apartment with my ex's sister and a random lady, to renting our own with just her sister, having our own room, privacy, bringing her other little brother and sister from our home country,and then renting our own apartment just the two of us, buying our own things, an AC, a TV, furniture, we were doing just great, we were achieving so much together.
Here's where things get tricky though, because the final "goal" I had in mind and wanted to work so hard for, was buying our own place, a house, an apartment, just our own place. And I started working harder everytime, having 2 jobs and my own "business" which is going great and giving me more money than those 2 jobs, saving money for a mortgage, and at the rate we were going, next year we could put a down payment of 40% the price of a decent house/apartment.
I fell in love with my girlfriend because of who she was as a person, her personality, her humor, all of those things. But when I have a goal in mind, I have the bad habit of focusing only on that goal everyday until I achieve it, and when you work hard for something specific everyday, I feel like your life starts revolving around that goal.
And what used to be "i love my girlfriend for who she is as a person" started becoming "I resent my girlfriend for not contributing enough to this goal that's supposed to be for both of us" she was working and saving money each month, less than I, since I had my english and that gave me way more opportunities in other countries.
But I wanted to see her grow, maybe find a better job, not for more money, but just an upgrade in general, maybe something that paid 10-20% less but wasnt as exhausting as her current job, since she was having a bad time and was always tired and stressed. So I started pressuring her without noticing, "lets find you a better job" "You should find a hobby or something you like doing" "I feel like you're not doing enough at home" "I feel like you're not helping when it comes to buying our own place, I know you probably cant contribute more in terms of money, but you could try asking co-workers for information, since I dont know anything when it comes to mortgages, just anything that helps"
Long story short, we had some big arguments because of that, bad things happened and I went to therapy, and was able to change these things fairly quick.
I kept working, spending more time with her, going out for food, watching series together, cleaning the house more, even started learning how to cook since I didnt know how to lol, since I wanted to surprise her sometimes when she gets home late and tired, I also wanted to start doing more for her, since I noticed I'd been too immersed in work, I've never been of gifting flowers and stuff like that, so I wanted to start doing it, there's some holidays in south america where you gift yellow flowers to the person you like/love/appreciate, that was around 1 month ago I believe, and I tried buying her some through a delivery app, since I was working and didnt have time to go out myself and buy them. The delivery took 3 hours and they ended up cancelling at like 8PM after the store was closed, and I said well, guess I'll take her to that expensive sushi place we really like to make it up to her. And still, after we were done and were on our way home, I asked her "Would you have preferred the flowers instead?" and she said yes, this "flowers" topic had come out only once before, when I asked her in our home country "How do you feel about me not being very thoughtful and not giving you like flowers and stuff, specially on those holidays where there's always the social media pics of girls getting them and stuff" and she said "I'd like it, but I'm very comfortable as we are right now, and I understand you're not used to doing it" and I was like okay, cool, its not that important to her and she feels good as we are.
4 weeks ago, I was feeling very overwhelmed with everything, I had basically 3 jobs at the same time, while also doing most of the cleaning at home, cooking, I felt like I was doing everything. So I thought about letting her know, but I was scared of doing so, since I know the last time I asked "more" of her, things didnt go well. So I thought about how I was going to say it, and I basically told her "I've been feeling very overwhelmed with everything, do you think you could maybe try giving me a hand at home more often? Maybe cleaning more often or idk" and things went south real quick, It felt like she had so many things she've been saving from before and this just made everything explode.
"I feel pressured, I feel like I'm always the problem, you dont give me flowers or attention, I'm not sure I feel good with the relationship anymore, we should take a break"
And I was like damn okay, I asked what was basically the minimum in my head at the time, and she now wants to take a break. She went to back to her sister's and I didnt know anything of her for probably 2 weeks, until one day she said "I went home and you werent there(I went out with some friends to distract myself), took my things, wanted to talk but since you werent there, i just wanted to tell you I decided we should break up". It didnt hit me until i got home and noticed all her clothes and her everything, were not there.
It hit me like a truck, probably the most pain and sadness I've felt in my entire life, all feelings and thoughts at the same time "She just left me after everything we've been through, I'll be alone in a country where I have no families and friends, how could she take that decision so casually without even trying to talk things first? I've been abandoned" I laid in my tub with a razor ready to end it all, all the things I've been working for in the past 3 years, all the things I wanted to get for both of us, all gone, all my motivation for working so hard, all the goals, gone.
Thankfully I was able to speak with a friend and nothing happened, though even today I have those thoughts every now and then lol. The next few days I went from blaming her, to blaming myself "I've been the worst boyfriend ever, how could i not know she wanted those things, how could I be so focused in material stuff to neglect her so bad, I need to fix everything, I need to apologize for everything, everything was my fault" which i did, went to her work with flowers, spoke with her, told her everything, apologized, but no matter what I said, she had made her decision. Kept going to therapy, my therapist basically asked me "What would you ask the version of you from back then to do? What could you've done to avoid all of this?" and my answer was basically "guess", she never communicated the things she wanted, or how she was feeling, she literally said "If I have to ask for it for you to do it, I dont want it" which honestly, for some reason, made sense back then, "you're right, I should've known what you wanted" clearly, my therapist made me realize how wrong that actually is.
I've been working non-stop, left my country, friends and family to be with you, everything for the relationship, I've been putting in the attention and the effort to make you happy, to make the relationship happy, I just wasnt putting the effort where you wanted it. But if I've been working so hard, spending probably 5 times the price of some flowers taking you out for food and the movies and other gifts and everything, what makes you think I couldnt have just put that effort where you wanted it? i HAD to know, you HAD to communicate.
And that's where I am right now, foreign country, no friends or family, with double the expenses, no goals in mind, no idea on what to do, no motivation to get up and work, eating once every 2 days, having barely any sleep, no shoulder to cry on, fighting these thoughts to hurt myself almost everyday.. And I know I'll be fine, I know im young, I'll meet someone else, I'll get some friends, its not the end of the world, but that doesnt make the pain, sadness and loneliness I'm feeling right now go away, and to be honest, I'm not scared about not being fine in the future, I know I will be, I'm scared about not being able to take it until that time comes.
Working remote has made it impossible to meet new people these 3 years I've been in the country, I'm now going to some "events" in the city to meet new people, but connecting with someone even friendship-wise isnt easy.
I still dont know how to feel, or what I should be feeling, or what I should be doing (I guess my therapist will help with that lol).
Sorry for such a long text, I guess I just wanted to get everything out of my chest, its been some rough weeks, thank you if you took the time to read everything lol.
Take care of yourself, everyone:)