It’s that time of year that many of us take on the endeavor of Spring-cleaning. My parents, however, have taken their cleaning initiatives to Olympian level. They decided, as they enter their 80’s, that it’s important to purge all non-essentials while they can physically still do it and are mentally together enough to decide what needs to go. Their purging mission led to the phone call from my mother that I really didn’t expect… “You look great in them!” “I’ll send them to you.”

With one phone call, the 90’s came back to haunt me, and it brought along the Ghost of Relationships Past. I moved to New York from Ohio in 1992, and David was my first New York boyfriend. He came into my life carrying two Rolling Rocks and wearing the confidence of a vivacious, dashing and full of life New Yorker. Being a “new New Yorker”, he was my total vision of the perfect New York Man. One Rolling Rock turned into three, followed by many dates, dinners and drinks- lots of drinks.

But in all relationships, there comes a time when the tinted glasses need to come off and a good look at the relationship must be taken. I realized that the businessman I loved so deeply was a great ideas guy, but his implementation skills were severely lacking and frankly impaired. I also had to come to terms with the reality that behind the smile of my dashing New Yorker was a vodka-infused breath that originated from his morning orange juice. “You look great in them!”

When I looked at the photographs, I smiled. David and I looked so young and so happy. I remembered so many great times, and I also remembered the not so happy moments that led to my decision to end the relationship. Looking at these pictures gave me the opportunity to look back on the experience and know with certainty that David left an imprint on my heart as well as my brain. I strongly suggest not deleting those pictures from your Social Media.