It's Not Possible To Be Friends With An Ex.

... While one of you still harbors romantic feelings towards the other.

I've always envied people who were able to remain friends with their ex, and I've always aimed to do the same. I only had two formal romantic relationships in the past, the first being experimental (the kind that you get into just to see how being in a relationship would be like) and the second being a real one, lasting five years and five months. 

When both relationships ended, I thought it was possible to remain friends with Ex1 and Ex2, especially that both endings went well. I tried to salvage the friendship, but it was not easy. 

It was disastrous with the first, and almost all attempts to reconnect resulted in me being frustrated every time the person would end up asking for another chance and doing all other sorts of emotional torture. In the end, I decided to stop being nice and to ignore the person altogether.

But I thought it would be different with the second, as we had something more than romantic relationship - we had friendship. And I still care about him, though not the romantic kind of care. I want him to succeed. I want him to be happy. I want him to have a good life. And I really want to keep him as a friend. But, as it turned out recently, I think it would be another failed attempt.

So what do you do when you want to be friends with an ex but the ex can't move on? No matter how much you want to keep the friendship, there are times when the only option left is to let go.