I'm better than her. I tell myself that a million times a day in the hope of eventually being able to believe what I say and perhaps I'm finally beginning to live my own words. 

"I'm better than her."

You've said it yourself, which is perhaps by far the greatest source of comfort I could have asked for. It doesn't matter to me how other people viewed your past, because I've heard everything from her being a 'great girl' to your past relationship 'blossoming'. It doesn't matter because what others hear isn't always the truth because all they see of a relationship is the superficial outer exterior. What matters most is what you tell me, that I'm better than her no matter what, a 'thousand times better' and that I mean a 'thousand times more'. That your past was 'forced' and that what you did in the relationship was done not naturally, but because you were 'supposed' to do it, which of course implies it's a terribly Lucy-Cecil relationship, whereby everything is planned and where nothing is spontaneous. 

Bottom line is? I'm glad you told me I'm better than her. It's the only source of comfort I have.

This may sound terribly narcissistic, but the truth is, I'm only doing this because convincing myself that I'm the best for you is the only way I can look back at whatever you've told me about her in the past and go, "I'm better than that." 

And why I say I'm starting to believe my words that I am indeed better than her is because of everything that's been done and been said to me so far. From what I heard and based on that alone, I think it's ridiculous to dump someone just because you favour a more 'manly' person. You get into a relationship knowing full well the implications of a long-term commitment (unless of course, you weren't even looking for a long term commitment) and knowing the person for his/her flaws completely. You decided against doing such a thing, decided to change and dump a perfectly good person leaving him in a wreck. I mean, where's the morality in that? As and when you decide change is needed you do so, leaving wreckage in your wake- wreckage that sometimes isn't cleared easily (you were lucky.) Looking back now, I'm glad you didn't try to take the relationship further because doing so would have harmed him. Perhaps that's the reason why I'm so indignant- the harm you inflicted upon him through immature ways.

And again, as narcissistic as this may sound, I'm glad I'm not that kind of person. And again, that's why I say I'm better than her. 

I've never been so certain for once in my life. And well, this is neither meant to be cocky nor, as I've been saying, narcissistic. It's meant as a form of self-encouragement.