Let me depict why letting someone go can be so hard, no matter how long the relationship/situationship lasted, with this following analogy.

This was the original post that I wrote that inspired the previous chapter's novel excerpt.

The Unopened Treasure Chest of Love

      Imagine one day you stumble upon a treasure chest. It comes out of nowhere; completely unexpected and only appears for your sight.

      You want to claim it for yourself. You seek to bring it home, but for whatever reasons your journey doesn't move forward as quickly or easily as expected. You run into multiple obstacles. Maybe a fear of what lies inside, maybe you're too busy to find the ways to transport it, maybe it's too heavy for your arms, maybe you have too many other things in your arms, maybe it's locked and you're searching for the key, maybe there's a hundred more reasons that you struggle to claim the chest.

      Imagine now, that you have to let go of the treasure chest. You must let it drift away in the sea without ever getting the chance to open it. You've yet to claim it as yours but it's time to let it go.

      You still don't know what's in the chest. Does that it make it easier or harder to release it? You would think it'd be easier to release something when you don't know it's true content.

      For imagine it you knew that in the chest rested a million dollars; the key to your dreams; the map towards the love of your life, etc. To release it without claiming the contents for your own would be unbearable. You would think of the loss for years to come. You would picture how different your life could be had you had the privilege of keeping the chest.

      So, now I ask: would it have been better if you didn't know what the chest held? Could you release the chest carelessly because you would not be taunted by what could have been? Would it be easier to fool yourself and say that the chest was likely empty or invaluable?

      I used to think so.

     I used to think so, until someone came into my life and left me with what ifs?

     Someone came into my life so abruptly, out of nowhere and unexpectedly like the chest.

     Like the chest I wanted to keep it. I was excited to open it and discover the treasure that rested within. I imagined the good fortune it could bring and felt excitement every time I looked or thought about the treasure.

      And then just as abruptly the chest slipped from my grip. Gone. Shipped to somewhere new, for another person to claim.

      Though I had been force to physically let it go, I seemed incapable of letting go of the idea of the chest and what it could have meant for my life.

      I chided myself for my inability to let this person go. Why did I think so much of someone that I barely knew? Why was this goodbye so hard when we barely said hello?

      But like releasing the unopened chest, I realized that something that remains unopened also comes with tortured thoughts of what could have been.

       Because in this person I saw potential. I saw what could have been a perfect match. I saw what could have been the qualities that I searched for in a partner.

      While the treasure may have held a million dollars, without opening it, I could easily imagine that it held ten million dollars.

       The unknown leaves room for even greater fortune but also greater disappointment.

      While I see now that most of my feelings rested in the mystery of what this treasure chest of a person could represent, sometimes I cannot help but wonder what would have come of my life if I had the pleasure of opening the chest and discovering its internal value.

      Because I didn't know what the chest held, my imagination ran freely. My ideas of him faced unlimited potential. So many different possibilities in the unknown.

      And that unlimited imagination was in part responsible for inability to let go even when the chest drifted miles away into the sea.

       Maybe it would have been even harder to let go if I had fully opened the chest. Or maybe I would have seen that the treasure that rested within was wonderful but not meant for me to cherish. But that uncertainty, that unknown, those what ifs, haunted me for many months.