Don’t burn your bridges.

How often have you heard that? How many times has that warning gravid with grave consequence struck you down and made you take a step back? Can you recall the instances where you’ve hit the delete key on an angry email, erased an impulsive message, and let wounds fester?

You did well.

Years pass. Time is an unblinking eye in the scorch of the sun. If you are foolish, you will have continued looking for signs of change. You will hope—that dirty four-lettered word again—that there is a better man underneath the indifferent face you scan with expectation. And again you will be disappointed and it will only be your own doing, or in this case, undoing.

I have said this before to myself and to others: if someone wants to leave you, let them. If someone has trouble deciding if you are worth it, remove yourself from the equation and make their decision a little easier. If someone has turned and walked away, watch them go until they are out of sight, and then get up, cross the street and walk away in the opposite direction. Do not allow yourself to become an unwanted occupant of someone’s time. And do not, under any circumstance overstay your welcome in anyone’s heart, or life.

Not everything needs to be kept. Not everyone you meet is a keeper. And you most certainly are not the station waiting room equivalent of a human being. So set the past on fire. Do it. You have nothing to return to, and if you ever had a second thought, don’t. There is nothing there. They are no longer there. And they are not what you need, at least not right now; not if it causes you to hurt.

Are you afraid? Good. Then this will mean something to you.

Set your bridges on fire. Sometimes, it’s all that is left for you to do. Move on.

Match. Strike. Go.