Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

If you read all the way through my 2013 questionnaire, you know that the year hadn't been bad to me at all.

Let's have a look at the "defining moments":

End of May 2013: Depression diagnosis

End of September 2013: End of a long, comitted relationship

End of October 2013: Work contract terminated by employer

So, you could look at that and think, "What an unpleasant year!".

 Or "The poor girl!". Luckily only one person reacted that way, and I haven't spoken to him since.

What people tend to have a hard time wrapping their minds around is the notion that

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Life is not linear. Maybe not even circular. It's spectacular! (Sorry, got carried away there.)
Being diagnosed led to getting better. Losing my job led to soul searching, research of options and the decision to go back to college and be serious about it this time around.

What was interesting to see, were the five groups of reactions to my new beginning as a single.

A) Fun:
Those who said they're sorry. Oh, the looks on their faces when asked if they had anything to do with the break-up!

B) Concerned:
Their first reaction was some kind of inquiry about my feelings towards this. "Are you okay?" "Which cat(s) did you get to keep?".
Yes, my cat defines my well-being.

C) Crystal Ball:
The ones who saw it coming. There's actually only one person who can be given credit for that, the others are just trying to save face. Luckily most of my friends admitted they didn't see it coming, because, well, I never talked much about my relationship. And that's when they realize, that indeed, I never talked about problems, but also hardly ever about good times...

D) 8!:
Those people who seem to be concerned about the fact that the break-up happened after 8 years of living together. This is quite puzzling. Do they mean that I should've figured it out earlier? Or that there's a threshold amount of years after which one cannot end a relationship? Or am I over-analyzing it, and it's just a reaction of "Oh crap, I don't know what to say now?"

E) The realtors:
This is the group I have the most problems with. "But you only just bought a house together!" (Thank you for reminding me, I knew I had forgotten something important.), or "What about the house?" (It's been standing for 100 years, it'll survive this too.) Flemish people, and mostly the older generations, place a lot of importance on real estate. You're not a real adult if you cannot tick off that box on your character sheet. Why would you untick it? How could you be so mean as to potentially, at some point in the future, cause it to be unticked for your partner?

That's it, I think I'm done comtemplating 2013 now.