Dear Miss Emily: I'm a 20 year old girl who got broken up with my boyfriend of almost 2 years (he's also 20) about 5 months ago. We had an amazing relationship - we were honest with each other, we loved each other so much, we spent time together but didn't neglect other parts of our lives. We were always very verbal with each other about the fact that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Everything seemed fine until we got back to college, fall semester. We had spent the whole weekend together happy, but when classes started on the following Monday, stress came. He got promoted at the newspaper at school and I think that under the pressure of his new responsibility, he kinda just freaked out. We had a few little arguments throughout the week, and on Friday, he broke up with me. He told me he didn't think he could balance everything, but when I tried to assure him that it would just take time and that I wanted to make it work, he told me he just fell out of love with me. I asked if he had been feeling this for a while and he said no, it happened 2 days ago. It was like a lightswitch was turned off or something. Since then, a guy who is extremely open to talking to people shuts down when I am brought up. He admitted that seeing me or talking to me would be too hard, and our contact has been limited. I just learned a few days ago that I think he is seeing someone new. I am so devastated. Is it really possible that someone can fall out of love with someone they once called their soulmate and best friend practically overnight? -------------------------------Miss Emily's advice------------------------ Before I finished your letter, I assumed he had met someone else. No, I don't think feelings are cut-off that easily. It's more or less, insidious. Some loss of feeling creeps up, the guy (or girl) tries to ignore them because he cares deeply for his girlfriend, despite these conflicting emotions. He makes an effort to deny them by verbally reinforcing his love for her and, finally, someone else comes along to make him face reality. In other words, I think he had doubts long before this, but he either wasn't willing to face it, or he didn't have the courage to tell you about it. I am so sorry. It is possible that he is simply not ready for the kind of commitment he was talking about with you, and a new girl in his life allowed him to get in touch with his true feelings.