Dear Philosophy,

Hey. How you doing? I know it's not super fun to talk about, but I just wanted to check in about “us” for a minute. I kinda can’t believe it’s already been five years now (!) since you broke off the engagement. In a lot of ways I think you were right to. This weird “open” phase of our relationship has been super clarifying for me, personally; and I can also see now how I was sort of holding you back. I mean, obviously it’s been hard to see you with other people. (Younger people, with hotter CVs.) But I still love you, deeply, and I think it would have been impossible for me to just give you up altogether. That said, five years is a long time to wait around and hope you change your mind. And I’ve been seeing other people too. It’s actually getting pretty serious with this one career path in particular. To the point where I think you and I should probably just break it off. It wouldn’t really be fair to anybody to keep hooking up like this. Hopefully we can stay friends, keep in touch. But I know how awkward that is sometimes. Actually, maybe you shouldn’t try to reach out to me for a bit. (And definitely no more late night referee requests.) I’m sure I’ll see you around. No hard feelings anymore. Well, not many, anyway. I want the best for you. I know, in your own way, you loved me too.