1. Because I already gave you a million chances. And I got screwed over every single time.
2. Because your apologies are meaningless. You act like you are sorry and then you turn around and go right back to doing what you promised you would never do again.
3. Because you do not even feel bad about what you have done to me. You do not seem guilty or regretful at all.
4. Because we fight with each other more than we laugh together.
5. Because the good times we have had together do not make up for the bad times. I am not going to let our happy memories stop me from doing what I know is best for my future.
6. Because your actions have consequences. You can’t keep getting away with the horrible things you have been doing. You are never going to learn a lesson unless someone teaches you one.
7. Because you are the definition of toxic. You are a liar, a cheater, a manipulator. You are all of the things I do not want associated with me.
8. Because I clearly don’t matter to you as much as you have always mattered to me.
9. Because you are never going to change. For a while, I thought that you could, but I was only fooling myself.
10. Because I deserve better. It took me a long time to realize that, but it’s the truth.
11. Because I stayed for way too long. You shouldn’t have even gotten this much time with me, so consider yourself lucky.
12. Because as long as I am around you, I am never going to flourish. You make it hard to concentrate, hard to move forward, hard to love myself.
13. Because you do not care about anyone except for yourself. I was never one of your priorities. You were too selfish to place me before you.
14. Because if I stay history is going to repeat itself.
15. Because you make me feel paranoid, anxious, and afraid when you should be making me feel loved, safe, and secure.
16. Because I have let people walk all over me throughout my entire life and I am finally getting sick of it.
17. Because I do not owe you anything. It doesn’t matter how much we have been through together or how much you have given me in the past. I am allowed to leave. I am not your possession.
18. Because you do not know how to love someone. You only know how to hurt.
19. Because I am going to be so much happier without you around to control me, argue with me, and throw subtle shade at me.
20. Because, at this point, there is nothing you can say or do that will make up for what you have put me through.
21. Because you were starting to make me wonder whether there was something wrong with me, whether I was the problem, whether I was broken.
22. Because, after putting up with your toxicity for such a long time, I finally have the strength to walk away without looking back.
By Holly Riordan for ThoughtCatalog