Hello everyone. I appreciate any advice you can offer, and I look forward to contributing to the community in the future as I’m a new member. I have a question about intimacy during a no-contact period: I met my girlfriend when I was in my final year of university. We were both 23 and each other's first partners. The first five months were spent getting to know each other, and then I confessed my feelings for her, and we started dating officially. Months 6, 7, and 8 were spent being intimate with clothes on, and months 9 through 12 we began being intimate without clothes, though we didn’t engage in full penetration because we planned to get married later on. After a year of being together, I graduated and had to return to my home country, which forced us into a long-distance relationship for around eight months. Eventually, I decided to break up with her due to ongoing drama. It was a bad decision because I truly loved her, but I wanted to focus on myself. During our relationship, she frequently brought up marriage, but I kept refusing because I wasn’t financially stable. After the breakup, I realized I had been conditioned to believe money is the only key to a happy family, even though she had always reassured me that money didn’t matter to her—she just wanted to be with me. The way I broke up with her was terrible. She had just arrived in Italy for a three-month internship, and the very day she got there, I ended things, leaving her completely alone with no friends or family nearby. After 70 days, we reconnected when she sent me a message to check on me. During our no-contact period, I didn’t sleep with anyone else, as that goes against my values. When I asked her, she initially said she hadn’t done anything either, so I decided to try and win her back because I still loved her and deeply regretted leaving her. I could see myself growing old with her. I spent 30 days trying to rekindle our relationship, and eventually, she accepted. We told our families about each other and agreed to start dating again.