Losing Time with Someone & Taking It Back

There’s no worse feeling than realizing you’ve been losing time with someone who didn’t deserve it. Time you can’t refund. Time you invested out of hope, love, loyalty, or just the fear of letting go. I’ve been there giving too much of myself to someone who took more than they gave, leaving me feeling empty and second-guessing my worth.

For a while, I thought maybe I could fix it. Maybe if I stayed longer, tried harder, or communicated more maybe if I texted them back, if I poured my heart into late-night conversations, I could salvage what I lost. I thought I could gain back time by forcing moments that felt like they slipped through my fingers.

But here’s what I’ve learned: You don’t get time back from someone else. You take it back for yourself.

Taking back my time wasn’t about cutting them off cold or ghosting it was about making a choice to show up for me. I stopped giving energy to meaningless texts. I stopped waiting on replies that never came. I stopped explaining myself to someone who was never really listening.

Instead, I started redirecting that attention inward back to my healing, my passions, my goals. I began nurturing the parts of me I abandoned while trying to save something that was already sinking. I gained my time back by being intentional. By creating boundaries. By realizing that no amount of texting, talking, or overextending could rewrite the moments I lost but I could stop losing more.

Taking your time back isn’t revenge it’s self-respect. It’s finally choosing you. It’s understanding that while you can’t change the past, you can absolutely control how you move forward.

So no, I don’t need to text my way back into someone’s life. I don’t need to chase closure through a phone screen. Because my time is mine again and now, I’m spending it wisely.