A bored university student spent her time in quarantine on the phone to all her exes to ask them 'what went wrong' in their relationship.
Rebecca Lockwood, 19, decided to treat isolation as an opportunity for self growth by asking her former lovers for constructive criticism.
Writing on student news site The Tab, she said: "The people who have experienced the worst of me are definitely the most qualified to tell me what went wrong and how to improve.
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"Plus, I really didn't have anything better to do - I was just so bored."
Call number one was with Jay, an ex-boyfriend dating back to last year. The pair met while living together in first year uni accommodation. After dating for a few months, she broke up with him in bed.
Jay told Rebecca on the phone: "I guessed you probably thought that yes I'm nice and I look after you, but that you aren't getting the most out of someone you should be fully committed to.
"I don't believe you made any wrong conscious choices, and neither did I."
Having escaped any particularly scathing criticism, Rebecca could move on to call two with renewed confidence. This was with Tim, who she dated for a couple of months about three years ago.
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She said of the break-up: "He was very difficult to break up with, by which I mean, whatever reason I gave, he would have a more than adequate counter-argument which definitely got frustrating."
Tim told her: "I feel like you broke up with me really out of the blue - especially after you brought me some gifts the day before.
"Then [you] blocked me and wouldn't speak to me about it."
But Tim ended up apologising to Rebecca for turning up at her house with a photobook of hand-annotated memories and flowers after she'd ended things.
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He said: "I'm still feel like a d**k about it years later."
His one piece of advice: "It's the cutting people off really - like for the longest time I assumed you just got bored of me."
Call number three was Ed, Rebecca's first kiss when she was at school, outside Greggs.
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Rebecca claims the pair are still friends now, often discussing Ed's relationship with his boyfriend.
Ed opened with: "Oh for f*** sake - are you taking the piss?
"How long was our relationship? Three days?!
"Not much happened and after a while you got your scary friend to dump me.
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"In terms of improvement, maybe you could have the b******s to dump me yourself."
Rebecca's advice for others considering picking up the phone to their exes: "They're probably as bored as you, and might want to spend some time giving you feedback for this crucial period of self-learning.
"And in a seemingly never-ending quarantine, what else do you have to do?"
Featured Image Credit: SWNSTopics: Dating, Coronavirus, Community