My boyfriend of 2.5 years and I are taking a little break. We basically are just sleeping in seperate beds and not really engaging in emotional or physical bids if affection or hanging out all that much outside of the house because we dk live together. This break is to give him space he needs to figure out what’s next for us. I don’t think he wants to end it, but a lot of other areas of his life are overwhelming and I admittedly have not really helping with that. Because he was my first relationship, I never wanted to be that screechy girlfriend always voicing her displeasure, but I ended up never talking about stuff that upset me between us until recently and I think that has overwhelmed him.

We’ve been getting into a lot of small little arguments that in the long run are pretty meaningless but it can be exacerbating. Things like him seeming to prioritize his other friends, some of which are female, over me. One example is we were at a show at a bar and I went outside to smoke, but my boyfriend didn’t come out and only came out when one of his female coworkers also went outside. I get that we live together and I work from home so am practically always here. He doesnt get enough space. I’m trying to teach myself that it’s good to have overlap with a person but a larger part of being a healthy person in a healthy relationship is having interests and activities independent from one another. It can just be a tough pill to swallow. Not that we do everything together all the time. Again, I feel like he does way more fun stuff with other people than he does with me, but even though I’m complain, I’m still really happy that it’s me he comes home to.

This is long and rambling but I’m basically just looking for advice or constructive criticism or thoughts of things I could say or do or ways to make myself feel less unhappy. He was and is my first really love, my first boyfriend and my first sexual partner. And while I miss him intimately, I’m glad that we can still laugh with each other and it hasn’t been awkward while in this break (except the weird hug goodnight and parting to different rooms). I feel really lonely but I know that this is temporary and could ultimately end up strengthening the relationship, but alternatively if I try too hard to mend it, I could push him away further.