History Main / LeavingYouToFindMyself

* On ''{{Series/NCIS}},'' Ziva becomes increasingly erratic and emotionally unstable following the death of her father. After resigning from NCIS for an unrelated reason, she returns to Israel and is confronted with her past as a trained assassin, which makes her re-evaluate [[HeWhoFightsMonsters her life]]. She becomes the target of an attack and realizes she doesn't want this life anymore, and when [[LoveInterest Tony]] tracks her down, she chooses to remain in Israel to reconnect with herself and rebuild her life. When she cameos in season 17, it's discovered this was never able to happen, because her past caught up with her and things got complicated.
* In the second season finale of ''Series/UglyBetty'', Gio asked her to go on a romantic trip to Italy with him, while Henry (who she'd just gotten over) proposed to her. She TookAThirdOption and went on a cross-country road trip without either of them.

* The song "Come Back To Me" is set through the dumped's POV. However, despite the title, the lyrics suggest that the person accepts that their LoveInterest needs to find themselves and that they will wait for the loved one to return.
* Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" is about a woman telling her lover that "I'm gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket," but she still has to leave him so she can "get a move on with my life." The lyrics suggest that despite how devoted they are, they've really been nothing more than little kids playing house, and she needs to get out and learn to stand on her own two feet.
* Music/{{Lonestar}}'s "No News" is also from the POV of the dumpee.

* Music/TheHumanLeague's [[Music/{{Dare}} "Don't You Want Me"]] is also about this situation from the dumpee's POV, but unlike the examples above, he ''isn't'' taking it well.

** The woman's side of the lyrics imply that he's TheSvengali and she needs some breathing room.
%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iF47M3YDlg Jimmy Nail]] also doesn't buy it.

* Music/DierksBentley's "Settle for a Slowdown" is another told from the POV of the dumped, hoping for just the smallest hint that she even misses him as she takes off to pursue her dreams.

* Creator/HenrikIbsen's ''Theatre/ADollsHouse'', OlderThanRadio and a TropeCodifier in the world of theatre. After subservient and sweet-natured Nora forges a signature to save her husband Torvald - her one and only show of initiative up until this point - he suddenly turns on her when this "deception" is revealed. As she realises their entire marriage is built on lies and she has been nothing other than a "doll" to both him, her father [[InherentInTheSystem and society as a whole]] she decides to leave in order to develop her own personality. Less sympathetic, though, is her decision to abandon her children into the bargain. ValuesDissonance may play a part here - at the time it was written, it would probably be extremely difficult for a "rogue" wife to get custody of her children. However, Nora's final speech suggests that even if it were possible to keep the children, she wouldn't even try. Notably, Nora is aware that the children are under the care of a trusted nurse.
* In the original ending of the theatrical adaptation to ''Literature/MissLuluBett'', Lulu says goodbye to everyone, both her {{Jerkass}} family and her admirer Cornish, going off to live independently for a while.

* In ''Theatre/NextToNormal'', Dan has coped with Diana's bipolar disorder for almost two decades and, recently, while struggling with his own depression. As the play nears the end, [[GriefInducedSplit Diana decides she needs to cope on her own (oddly enough, by running off to her parents' house...) and leaves Dan behind]] with the farewell gift of their dead son's spectre. Needless to say, he isn't too happy about this, but both sides are seen as sympathetic.
* In ''Theatre/StreetScene'', Rose ultimately leaves Sam because, after what happened to her mother and her father, she decides that people shouldn't belong to anyone but themselves; "loving and belonging aren't the same thing," she explains. She tries to reassure him that perhaps they can be together again some time, when they're older and understand themselves better, to little avail.

* Not romantic ([[HoYay unless you want to stretch it a bit]]), but Kain staying on Mt. Ordeals and missing Cecil and Rosa's wedding in the ending of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' counts, as he's looking to make himself a better person after being forced to betray Cecil twice during the game.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Syberia}}'', Kate maturely breaks up with Dan over the phone, after she realises that he's happier with Olivia and that her journey has made her unable to reconnect with her former life in the US.

* In Volume 8 of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', Nora ends up telling Ren she's not ready to get together with him because she's realized she's based so much of her identity around being his best friend that she doesn't know who she is without him.

* In ''Webcomic/BoyMeetsBoy'', Skids "grows up", reclaims his proper name, Gio, [[ItsAllJunk gets rid of his hat...]]and moves to New York, resolving never to see his old friends again.
* Friendship version: In the final storyline of ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy'', Casey proposes to Mary. He then tells Andy that he's going to need Andy to move out of the house when they're done with their latest adventure. Casey explained it as he needed to step up and be a more responsible adult now that he's going to be a proper husband with the implication that Andy's {{manchild}} behavior would be too much of an enabler to keep him from doing so. Downplayed in that there's no indication they stopped being friends. It was more that they couldn't keep hanging out all the time.

** WordOfGod has Collin's decision to terminate his relationship with Fox as a major CharacterDevelopment hallmark, explicitly stating in ''Webcomic/OtherPeoplesBusiness'' that Collin was a much more rounded character after ditching Fox, marrying Leon, and returning to [[ManipulativeBastard his parents']] good graces. Meanwhile, Fox had such a complete [[HeroicBSOD romantic BSOD]] that ''his'' family struggled to pick up the pieces. Mitigating factor: Fox and Collin ''did'' try counselling before this. Non-mitigating-factor: by all indications, Collin wasn't half as interested in repairing the relationship as Fox was, and rather than terminate the relationship honestly and face up to the pain he knew he'd cause, Collin tried to do a [[NotStayingForBreakfast moonlight flight.]]
* At the end of the [[https://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/287 "There But For the Grace"]] arc in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' Galatea leaves her newfound family to go explore the world -- her stated reason being that she's genetically identical to Molly, and she's afraid that if she stays in the environment that molded Molly, she'll stop being her own person.

* Deconstructed in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "[[Recap/AmericanDadS7E9FartBreakHotel Fartbreak Hotel]]". Francine is mistaken for a concrete saleswoman, and to combat her deep frustration and lack of fulfillment in her current life, she goes along with it. Doing surprisingly well in this new life, she chooses to leave her family to pursue this new purpose, and ends up becoming a very wealthy and successful business woman. However she finds even less fulfillment in this life, and still misses her family, so through MentalTimeTravel, goes back to stop her younger self from leaving.

* Played interestingly in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty''. In "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E9TheABCsOfBeth The ABCs of Beth]]", after Beth has her JerkassRealization and isn't sure what to do next, Rick offers her the chance to do this by leaving her family and Earth behind to have her own adventures throughout the universe and embrace her darker side, while he creates a clone of her that would look after her kids for her so they wouldn't even know she'd left. The episode's ending makes it ambiguous whether she accepted and the Beth we see there is the clone, or turned down the offer and she's the real Beth. [[spoiler:"Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri" reveals that Rick ''did'' clone Beth, and one of the two versions did indeed fulfill this trope by going out to space as he suggested--becoming a badass ActionGirl space rebel in the process--while the other stayed on Earth to look after her family. The twist is, ''nobody'', not even Rick, knows which one is the original and which is the clone.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E21TheQuestion The Question]]", Ruby decides to be an independent Gem separate from Sapphire after [[spoiler: the reveal that Rose Quartz was really Pink Diamond]] makes them feel as if the whole basis of their [[FusionDance perma-fusion as Garnet]] was a lie. After some much-needed self-exploration [[ItMakesSenseInContext as a cowboy,]] she eventually reunites with Sapphire and [[spoiler: asks her to marry her.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'': The GrandFinale, [[Recap/StevenUniverseFutureS1E20TheFuture "The Future",]] has [[spoiler:Steven leaving the Gems and moving out of Beach City to travel the country. [[LongDistanceRelationship He doesn't stop being Connie's boyfriend.]]]]

Others though, seem to discard perfectly good and loving partners for no other reason than that that particular person reminds them of their past...or, more selfishly, they've decided that after years in a committed relationship, they "deserve" to experience other people and leave their loyal lover in the dust, blinking in confusion. Extra KickTheDog points if this lover has stuck by them through thick and thin. The author may [[JustifiedTrope try to justify this]] with claims that their partner was "holding them back" or "too dependent on them." This explanation has varying degrees of success - a possessive partner who doesn't want their lover to cross the threshold of the house won't get much support from the audience, but a loyal husband or wife who has [[TheCaretaker nursed their spouse]] through illness, only to be dumped the instant the doctor gives them the all-clear, certainly will. After all, if the partner only gets discarded after the DelicateAndSickly character gets better, it [[UnfortunateImplications begins to look like]] the ill partner was only using them to get through the illness. Surely if they wanted to get out of the relationship ''that'' badly, the illness wouldn't have stopped them?

* ''Anime/HeatGuyJ'' ends this way, with Daisuke leaving the city, his loved ones, and best friend behind...which comes off as a total non-sequitur since he spent most of the series talking about how much he loved the city.
** It's a real head-scratcher because it isn't explained where he went or what he did while there, or what everyone else has been up to while he's gone. It looked like they were going to ''try'' to do a sequel, but for some reason never did, so it's just a CliffHanger.

* Ramona Flowers did this in ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrim''. Though she does come back. [[spoiler:And it turns out she spent her time away doing basically the exact same thing as Scott was during their separation; that is, moping around and playing videogames.]]
** Scott himself is sort of forced into it.

* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus'', Specter is being convinced to try again on the Infinity Train (his last attempt nearly destroyed the Train in the process) and Ryoken -- who has been in heavy denial about the Train and copped Specter in his room in the Kougami Manor -- essentially tells Yuri (who makes a remark on Ryoken being scared on his "Beloved Specter" disappearing in the middle of the night) he doesn't "see Specter in that light". This gets Specter (who has a crush on Ryoken) to realize that he has to get back on the Train and be his own person and he tells Ryoken to shove it.

%%* The mother (played by Meryl Streep) in the movie ''Film/KramerVsKramer''.

* In the second ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', Gabriella decides she needs to do this, as she so eloquently sums up in song. She comes back, though.

* In one of Creator/JodiPicoult's novels, the father of the family relates the tale of one of his coworkers who stood staunchly by his wife as she fought cancer. When she was better, she dumped her husband, claiming that she wanted more from life. The father's initial reaction was that the woman was a monster, but after looking after a sick daughter himself, he could understand where she was coming from.

* [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Ash]] does this to [[{{Tsundere}} Mary-Lynette]] in ''Literature/DaughtersOfDarkness1996'', vowing to return to her when he's [[TheAtoner slain the dragon of his past.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Palimpsest}}'' Lucia flees her marriage to Ludo which she says stifled everything about her true self.

* ''Literature/WhenWomenWereDragons'': Women who dragon often fly away and pursue their own goals, leaving their loved ones behind. Marla leaves her child and beloved sister's family when she dragons. At the end of the book, [[spoiler: Sonja]] leaves her lover to explore outer space.

** Shawn ends his high school relationship with Angela in freshman year because he wants this.
** As karma would have it, after getting back together, Angela leaves Shawn to go traveling with her dad near the end of the final season. [[spoiler:Then it's later revealed she got married to someone else]].

* Implied in the ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' when Rory's rebellious boyfriend [[{{JerkWithAHeartOfGold}} Jess]] runs away to find his real father. He pops again months later and it's obvious he [[{{AnguishedDeclarationOfLove}} never stopped loving her]], but needed to sort himself out before committing. Sure enough, when he returns years later, he's a [[{{SelfMadeMan}} successful author and publisher]] whose example actually inspires Rory to get ''her own life'' together at a particular low-point where ''she'' was looking for herself.
* In ''Series/{{Homeland}}'' the love interest of Saul leaves him because he has a time-intensive job (as if she hadn't known before) and she wants to fulfill herself by demanding that he gives up his job and moves with her to India for charity work. Because working for the Government is not important at all, so this wasn't really giving Saul options, it was a break-up.

* ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'': The entirety of the Eclipse arc and the Crapsack nature of the world can be traced back to the moment Guts left the Band of the Hawk (who had just ended a decades-long war for their employer, Griffith getting knighted and on the fast track to promotion) so as to step out of Griffith's shadow. Griffith is having none of that and duels him, expecting an easy win like when they first met. Guts, having been at the forefront of every battle of the past few years, easily wins and leaves. This causes a HeroicBSOD in Griffith who sleeps with Princess Charlotte of Midland and gets caught (that he's a commoner is bad enough, but the fact that the king had unnatural feelings for his own daughter didn't help). Griffith is imprisoned and tortured for two years while the Band of the Hawk has to survive while being hunted by the regular army. By the time the Band rescues Griffith, he can no longer talk, hold a sword or even stand by himself, and seeing Casca has taken up with Guts, goes through an even bigger HeroicBSOD that ends with him starting the Eclipse and sacrificing his soldiers to become one of the Godhand.
** Subverted during a HopeSpot in the Eclipse Arc (after Guts' departure and before [[WhamEpisode everything goes to hell]]). After a ''very'' [[WillTheyOrWontThey emotionally]] [[DrivenToSuicide climactic]] [[LetsYouAndHimFight episode]] between Guts and Casca that culminates with TheirFirstTime, Guts tells Casca that he still plans to leave the Hawks after rescuing Griffith in order to finish finding his own dream. No sooner does Casca start winding up into "AmIJustAToyToYou" than he ''[[WhamLine asks her to come with him]]''.

* [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Ash]] does this to [[{{Tsundere}} Mary-Lynette]] in [[Literature/NightWorld Daughters of Darkness]], vowing to return to her when he's [[TheAtoner slain the dragon of his past.]]
* One of the plot points in ''TheSolitaireMystery'' by JosteinGaarder. The main character's mother, Anita, has left them to find herself, and the protagonist and his father are taking a road trip to Athens to get her back.

* ''Literature/NinaTanleven'': Nine's mother left two years before the series started “to find her own life”, as described in ''The Ghost Let Go'' (she was mentioned as having left as far back as the first book, but the exact cause was left unsaid until the fourth story).

* Lily attempted this on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': When she was offered an art fellowship in San Francisco, she took it because she regretted not having followed her dream of becoming an artist and wanted to find out who she was without Marshall, as the two had been practically inseparable since their first week of college. She doesn't really want to break up, but Marshall told her [[CareerVersusMan she had to choose]] since he refused to put off their imminent wedding in order to wait months for her to come back and decide if she was ready yet. {{Deconstructed|Trope}}, as it is made clear Lily left behind her lover, friends, and overall stability (her apartment and most items now belong to Marshall and Ted). When she ''does'' come back, it becomes a BreakUpMakeUpScenario for them both, once Marshall realized a break was good for them, telling her they should continue to figure out who they are without each other, and initially rejecting her when she tried to make up. Lily is left in a dinky apartment and poor living conditions the entire time. However, they ultimately get back together a few months later and stay together for the rest of the series.
* In season 4 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Oz leaves Willow to go learn how to better control [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent his inner wolf]]. He succeeds (somewhat) but when he returns, she's moved on.
* The reason for [[spoiler: Chuck and Blair]]'s latest break-up on ''Series/GossipGirl''.
** Also one of the reasons why Dan and Jenny's parents got divorced.
* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'':
** Shawn ends his high school relationship with Angela in freshman year because he wants this.
** As karma would have it, after getting back together, Angela leaves Shawn to go traveling with her dad near the end of the final season. [[spoiler:Then it's later revealed she got married to someone else]].
* Implied in the ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' when Rory's rebellious boyfriend [[{{JerkWithAHeartOfGold}} Jess]] runs away to find his real father. He pops again months later and it's obvious he [[{{AnguishedDeclarationOfLove}} never stopped loving her]], but needed to sort himself out before committing. Sure enough, when he returns years later, he's a [[{{SelfMadeMan}} successful author and publisher]] whose example actually inspires Rory to get ''her own life'' together at a particular low-point where ''she'' was looking for herself.
* In ''Series/ChinesePaladin'', Ling'er does this near the middle of the series. Her stated reason is that she's just found out her [[DivineParentage heritage]] and needs time to come to terms with it.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': Jason Gideon leaves the FBI after a serial killer targets someone in his personal life, and the stress of the incident left him without the confidence to perform his job.
* In ''Series/{{Homeland}}'' the love interest of Saul leaves him because he has a time-intensive job (as if she hadn't known before) and she wants to fulfill herself by demanding that he gives up his job and moves with her to India for charity work. Because working for the Government is not important at all, so this wasn't really giving Saul options, it was a break-up.

* In ''Theatre/NextToNormal'', Dan has coped with Diana's bipolar disorder for almost two decades and, recently, while struggling with his own depression. As the play nears the end, [[GriefInducedSplit Diana decides she needs to cope on her own (oddly enough, by running off to her parents' house...) and leaves Dan behind]] with the farewell gift of their dead son's spectre. Needless to say, he isn't too happy about this, but both sides are seen as sympathetic.

* In ''Theatre/StreetScene'', Rose ultimately leaves Sam because, after what happened to her mother and her father, she decides that people shouldn't belong to anyone but themselves; "loving and belonging aren't the same thing," she explains. She tries to reassure him that perhaps they can be together again some time, when they're older and understand themselves better, to little avail.
* In ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'', one of the girls in the "Cell Block Tango" number mentions how her lover, Al Lipschitz, would go out every night looking for himself. "And on the way, he found Ruth, Gladys, Rosemary...and Irving!"

%%* One of the possible endings in ''VisualNovel/KanaLittleSister''.

* Zoë and Reza break up for this reason in the backstory of ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney''. They remain AmicableExes though, and a large part of the plot is about Zoë investigating the disappearance of Reza. By the time [[VideoGame/DreamfallChapters the next game begins]], they are back together.

* Before ''Friendly Hostility'', the friendship version occurred in ''Webcomic/BoyMeetsBoy''. Skids "grows up", reclaims his proper name, Gio, [[ItsAllJunk gets rid of his hat...]]and moves to New York, resolving never to see his old friends again.

* Friendship version: In the final storyline of ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy'', Casey proposes to Mary. He then tells Andy that he's going to need Andy to move out of the house when they're done with their latest adventure. Casey explained it as he needed to step up and be a more responsible adult now that he's going to be a proper husband with the implication that Andy's {{manchild}} behavior would be too much of an enabler to keep him from doing so. Downplayed in that there's no indication they stopped being friends. It was more that they couldn't keep hanging out all the time.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "The Question", Ruby decides to be an independent Gem separate from Sapphire after [[spoiler: the reveal that Rose Quartz was really Pink Diamond]] makes them feel as if the whole basis of their [[FusionDance perma-fusion as Garnet]] was a lie. After some much-needed self-exploration [[ItMakesSenseInContext as a cowboy,]] she eventually reunites with Sapphire and [[spoiler: asks her to marry her.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' Season 6 finale "Overclockwise" has Leela, aspiring to greater things than her dead-end job at Planet Express and feeling that her relationship with Fry is failing to move forward, moving off-planet and embarking on a new career. [[spoiler:Of course, it's a very brief departure and she returns and reunites with Fry at the end of the episode, confessing that she missed the job and him.]]
* Deconstructed in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Fartbreak Hotel". Francine is mistaken for a concrete saleswoman, and to combat her deep frustration and lack of fulfillment in her current life, she goes along with it. Doing surprisingly well in this new life, she chooses to leave her family to pursue this new purpose, and ends up becoming a very wealthy and successful business woman. However she finds even less fulfillment in this life, and still misses her family, so through MentalTimeTravel, goes back to stop her younger self from leaving.
* Played interestingly in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty''. In "The [=ABCs=] of Beth", after Beth has her JerkassRealization and isn't sure what to do next, Rick offers her the chance to do this by leaving her family and Earth behind to have her own adventures throughout the universe and embrace her darker side, while he creates a clone of her that would look after her kids for her so they wouldn't even know she'd left. The episode's ending makes it ambiguous whether she accepted and the Beth we see there is the clone, or turned down the offer and she's the real Beth. [[spoiler:"Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri" reveals that Rick ''did'' clone Beth, and one of the two versions did indeed fulfill this trope by going out to space as he suggested--becoming a badass ActionGirl space rebel in the process--while the other stayed on Earth to look after her family. The twist is, ''nobody'', not even Rick, knows which one is the original and which is the clone.]]

* Lily attempted this on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': When she was offered an art fellowship in San Francisco, she took it because she regretted not having followed her dream of becoming an artist and wanted to find out who she was without Marshall, as the two had been practically inseparable since their first week of college. She doesn't really want to break up, but Marshall told her [[CareerVersusMan she had to choose]] since he refused to put off their imminent wedding in order to wait months for her to come back and decide if she was ready yet. {{Deconstructed|Trope}}, as it is made clear Lily left behind her lover, friends, and overall stability (her apartment and most items now belong to Marshall and Ted). When she ''does'' come back, it becomes a BreakUpToMakeUp scenario for them both, once Marshall realized a break was good for them, telling her they should continue to figure out who they are without each other, and initially rejecting her when she tried to make up. Lily is left in a dinky apartment and poor living conditions the entire time. However, they ultimately get back together a few months later and stay together for the rest of the series.

[[folder:Web Animation]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* In Volume 8 of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', Nora ends up telling Ren she's not ready to fet together with him because she's realized she's based so much of her identity around being his best friend that she doesn't know who she is without him.

Broke my heart into, but baby, pay no mind.\\

* In ''Theatre/NextToNormal'', Dan has coped with Diana's bipolar disorder for almost two decades and, recently, while struggling with his own depression. As the play nears the end, Diana decides she needs to cope on her own (oddly enough, by running off to her parents' house...) and leaves Dan behind with the farewell gift of their dead son's spectre. Needless to say, he isn't too happy about this, but both sides are seen as sympathetic.

Others though, seem to discard perfectly good and loving partners for no other reason than that that particular person reminds them of their past...or, more selfishly, they've decided that after years in a committed relationship, they "deserve" to experience other people and leave their loyal lover in the dust, blinking in confusion. Extra KickTheDog points if this lover has stuck by them through thick and thin. The author may [[JustifiedTrope try to justify this]] with claims that their partner was "holding them back" or "too dependent on them." This explanation has varying degrees of success - a possessive partner who doesn't want their lover to cross the threshold of the house won't get much support from the audience, but a loyal husband or wife who has [[TheCaretaker nursed their spouse]] through illness, only to be dumped the instant the doctor gives them the all-clear, certainly will. After all, if the partner only gets discarded after the IllGirl (or boy) gets better, it [[UnfortunateImplications begins to look like]] the ill partner was only using them to get through the illness. Surely if they wanted to get out of the relationship ''that'' badly, the illness wouldn't have stopped them?

* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus'', Specter is being convinced to try agin on the Infinity Train (his last attempt nearly destroyed the Train in the process) and Ryoken -- who has been in heavy denial about the Train and copped Specter in his room in the Kougami Manor -- essentially tells Yuri (who makes a remark on Ryoken being scared on his "Beloved Specter" disappearing in the middle of the night) he doesn't "see Specter in that light". This gets Specter (who has a crush on Ryoken) to realize that he has to get back on the Train and be his own person and he tells Ryoken to shove it.

* In Volume 8 of ''WebAnimation/RWBY'', Nora ends up telling Ren she's not ready to fet together with him because she's realized she's based so much of her identity around being his best friend that she doesn't know who she is without him.

* Deconstructed in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Fartbreak Hotel". Francine is mistaken for a concrete saleswoman, and to combat her deep frustration and lack of fulfillment in her current life, she goes along with it. Doing surprisingly well in this new life, she chooses to leave her family to pursue this new purpose., and ends up becoming a very wealthy and successful business woman. However she finds even less fulfillment in this life, and still misses her family, so through MentalTimeTravel, goes back to stop her younger self from leaving.

** Subverted during a HopeSpot in the Eclipse Arc (after Guts' departure and before [[WhamEpisode everything goes to hell]]). After a ''very'' [[WillTheyOrWontThey emotionally]] [[DrivenToSuicide climactic]] [[LetsYouAndHimFight episode]] between Guts and Casca that culminates with TheirFirstTime, Guts tells Casca that he still plans to leave the Hawks after rescuing Griffith in order to finish finding his own dream. No sooner does Casca start winding up into "AmIJustAToyToYou" than he ''[[WhamLine asks her to come with him]]''. [[Heartwarming/{{Berserk}} Awwww]]...

* Any game with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters will generally have one of them go on a journey to find themselves in the epilogue. Examples include the ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' series, the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series, and ''VideoGame/VandalHearts''.

* Nicely subverted in ''Film/GardenState''. The protagonist says this to his lover...then returns from offscreen and says, that come to think of it, that's a ''horrible'' idea.
* The terrible ''National Lampoon's Movie Madness'' opens its first segment with a husband ''forcing'' his wife to go on a journey of self-discovery in a parody of ''Film/KramerVsKramer''.

* The 1981 Human League song "Don't You Want Me" is also about this situation from the dumpee's POV, but unlike the examples above, he ''isn't'' taking it well.

* Deconstructed in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Fartbreak Hotel". Francine is mistaken for a concrete saleswoman, and to combat her deep frustration and like of fulfillment in her current life, she goes along with it. Doing surprisingly well in this new life, she chooses to leave her family to pursue this new purpose., and ends up becoming a very wealthy and successful business woman. However she finds even less fulfillment in this life, and still misses her family, so through MentalTimeTravel, goes back to stop her younger self from leaving.

* Lily attempted this on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': When she was offered an art fellowship in San Francisco, she took it because she regretted not having followed her dream of becoming an artist and wanted to find out who she was without Marshall, as the two had been practically inseparable since their first week of college. She doesn't really want to break up, but Marshall told her [[CareerVersusMan she had to choose]] since he refused to put off their imminent wedding in order to wait months for her to come back and decide if she was ready yet. When she ''does'' come back, it becomes a BreakUpToMakeUp scenario for them both, once Marshall realized a break was good for them, telling her they should continue to figure out who they are without each other, and initially rejecting her when she tried to make up. However, they ultimately get back together a few months later and stay together for the rest of the series.

* At the end of the [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20080927.html "There But For the Grace"]] arc in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' Galatea leaves her newfound family to go explore the world -- her stated reason being that she's genetically identical to Molly, and she's afraid that if she stays in the environment that molded Molly, she'll stop being her own person.

* On ''{{Series/NCIS}},'' Ziva becomes increasingly erratic and emotionally unstable following the death of her father. After resigning from NCIS for an unrelated reason, she returns to Israel and is confronted with her past as a trained assassin, which makes her re-evaluate [[HeWhoFightsMonsters her life]]. She becomes the target of an attack and realizes she doesn't want this life anymore, and when [[LoveInterest Tony]] tracks her down, she chooses to remain in Israel to reconnect with herself and rebuild her life. When she cameos in season 17, it's discovered this was never able to happen, because her past caught up with her and things got [[{{Understatement}} complicated.]]

* Music/DierksBentley's "Settle for a Slowdown" is another told from the POV of the dumped, hoping for just the smallest hint that she even misses him as she takes off for Hollywood.

* The mother (played by Meryl Streep) in the movie ''Film/KramerVsKramer''.

* Music/{{Lonestar}}'s "No News" is also from the POV of the dump-ee.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iF47M3YDlg Jimmy Nail]] also doesn't buy it.

* One of the possible endings in ''VisualNovel/KanaLittleSister''.