'Things I Wanna Text My Ex' Is Currently The Best Thing On The Internet
It's difficult to replicate the feeling of how cathartic, relatively anonymous and special sites like Xanga, Livejournal, early Myspace and Tumblr, or even the very beginnings of FML (I know, I've fully aged myself here) used to make us feel. A space to share and be vulnerable isn't as common as it used to be. Luckily, now there's a Google Sheet that brings us back a bit to that feeling.
While sharing lunch with a friend, 24-year-old Sean Drohan dreamt up the idea for "Texts i wanna send my ex," a spreadsheet hosted on Google Sheets that allows people to say the things they can't, shouldn't or are afraid to text their ex-lovers. The responses range from kind and accepting to angry! Drohan never expected the huge response that the doc has received, nor did he anticipate the level of honesty and vulnerability that's displayed in the participants' contributions.
"Just the level of earnestness," he wrote to Refinery 29. "People really took it as an opportunity to speak some truth. I think that I also try to cultivate that with people in my life, though. Like, I'm a compulsive non-small talker."
And this google sheet is the farthest thing from small talk.
One person wrote about their feelings of abandonment and neglect they felt from their ex:
"Just wanted you to know you made my 26-hour flight across the world a truly miserable experience. I was never mad at you for not being able to see me before I left. It was the fact that you never replied, nor reached out to me when I was away at home that really hurt me. There were plenty of ways for you to reach out but you never did- so what was I supposed to think? I could have texted you when I got back but realized I couldn't be with someone who was ok with not knowing whether or not I was hurt. So yeah, I guess that's why I walked away."
Others shared the more succinct, petty things we all can't help but think on the journey to getting over someone we once loved:
"Your new boyfriend looks like a toad. "
Some responses are truly beautiful and poetic, and literally made me stare into the abyss for way too long, feeling the pangs of my own failed 'ships.
"A breeze hit my leg by the stove the other day and I thought it was the cat, but then I remembered I don't live with the cat anymore. I cried. When you venmo'ed me your half of the couch and desk at work, I went to the bathroom. I cried. Thank god for single-stall, gender-neutral bathrooms. My therapist says I'll be your biggest regret, but I pay him to say things like that. My friends say you're a dick, but they're my friends. I say that I miss you and I miss the inside jokes and language we had that's now a dead religion no one practices. I'm still shaken by our breakup, and trying to rebuild myself. I wish you had held my hand more, and I wish I had been gentler."
Scroll through the sheet to read hundreds of responses. The next time you get the urge to text something you really maybe shouldn't, try putting it here first. If anyone judges your response, it really doesn't matter anyway, as it's totally anonymous. It might just fill a bit of the void or provide the right amount of catharsis you needed to refrain from texting your ex-boo.
