Traits of the Heartbroken

Imagine if everyone that’s ever had their heart broken had to walk around with some kind of permanent public mark. Like a little flashing light above their heads, or something, a bit like in The Sims, which is really weird, but just stick with me. So, you could be walking the busiest streets of the busiest cities, which can weirdly be the loneliest places, and you could be feeling broken through and through because someone bashed on this vital organ of yours, and it all came crashing down.

But you would see all these strangers walking passed with their little flashing lights, and suddenly you wouldn't feel as sad or alone any more. And they wouldn't need to give you a sympathetic nod when you pass, but just the fact that they are out there in the world, walking around and getting on with it, whether they had their heart broken last week or 20 years ago, would be encouraging. Because they lived through it. And they went to school or work, they ate their dinner, visited their grandmother, and got on with it. And I'm sure some days are better than others, and they probably cried on the phone to their friend, they probably wolfed through gallons of ice-cream or alcohol, but they got through it. And now, they’d walk the streets as living proof that the heartbreak didn't win.

I'm sure that there are people out there who live their entire lives without being heartbroken once. Some of those people are just really lucky. But some of them, and I don’t envy anyone for this, some of them just aren't risk takers. And it’s so easy when your emotions take a hit to just be really cynical and hard, and to retreat into a place where you just hate everyone because you feel invincible that way. But if you don’t take risks, you’ll never reap the benefits from the risks that turn out to be worth it.

Heartbreak isn't enviable. Though, what I think are enviable are the typical character traits of the heartbroken. Because we’re the optimists. We’re the romantics, the thinkers, the dreamers, the risk takers, we’re the idealists. We just awarded our trust to the wrong person. But at least we had trust to give. All those traits, no matter how many times I get my heart broken, they’re not traits I'm willing to lose.