Did you really think it was going to end so smoothly and painlessly? We are back at this dark familiar place where dreams come to die and hearts give up all hope of mending.

Then, after several weeks, or months, of bitter tears and angry vows and self-pitiful melodrama, the cycle is more or less complete: You are ready to fall again. And to fall well, you must first climb as high as you can.

Sometimes you begin to believe that you have been cursed. Other times, you assume that you’re just irresistibly lured by paths leading to emotional dead-ends.

And, once in a while, you wonder if maybe this is what it’s all about: Life was never meant to be sweet or easy, and the amount of disappointment you end up experiencing is directly proportional to the size of your expectations.