Shredding Heartbreak

Breakups are inevitable in life. Unless you’re one of those unicorns who meets the love of their life, and never breaks up with them, and never sees anyone else, breakups are inevitable. (If you are in that category, congratulations? I guess)

Some relationships just fizzle over time. You both come to the understanding that it’s time to let go. Others end with terrible strife and drama, and buckets of tears. Still others end in a cold, clean somewhat calculated manner. Every one of these is an explosion within your own life. Whether it’s the change in status quo, or a breath of fresh air, there is still a moment when it seems like everything has changed.

I wrote Shredding Heartbreak in the wake of a break up. It was a bad break up. The kind with buckets of tears, the desire to rip someone’s head off, and lots of gelato. It took time. But I moved past it. Onto other parts of life. Then a figurative explosion happened in another friend’s life, and I decided to write a short about breakups. But I didn’t want to write a short where the guy ‘wins.’ As it where. I wanted to write a short that shows the real devastation and emotional roller coaster that arrives with a breakup. One moment you’re shredding pictures, with glee. The next moment you need fro-yo. The next, you sit on the couch with your best friends.

Breakups are rarely dramatized, in movies, as they are in real life. People think real life is boring. But this story wasn’t so boring to me. The truth wasn’t boring to me. The idea of a healthy breakup, mourning process wasn’t boring to me. And I wanted to write a short for the break up I didn’t have. For the breakup I wish I had.

I was desperately alone when my break up happened. I had none of my friends around me. I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. I couldn’t even recognize that it was such a big deal, myself. What if that had been different? What if I had had my best friends there for me to shred pictures. To take care of me? To go to the movies. To just understand. Wouldn’t that be the most comforting, realistic portrayal of a break up? Where it’s not all tears. But it takes time to recover. That’s what this short is. I hope you enjoy. I hope you pause afterwards, and just say, “Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.”