I think I'm finally over a longtime crush

There's this one guy in my social circle that I've been unrequitedly in love with for almost 10 years now. There was never any chance there - he had a girlfriend when we first met, and when they eventually split up he had another one before I even knew the first one was gone - plus I'm very very obviously not his type. But damn, he was my type, more than anyone I've ever known. I spent years thinking that even though he wasn't ever going to be a possibility for me, just knowing a guy like that *exists* was encouraging, because if there's one like him then there must be others and perhaps eventually I'd run into one who wasn't already taken and might be interested in someone like me.

I can't deny to myself that this crush was contributing to how hard it's been for me to find dates. Comparing men on dating apps to this one dude and thinking how most of them weren't even close.

Anyway, he has now gone in a direction with his life that made me realize a few things and finally get him off this pedestal I've put him on in my mind. Nothing really bad, but it just kinda brought the crush down to reality at last, and I can look at him as just a regular guy who happens to be attractive to me and has lots of things in common with me. Not The Ultimate Perfect Unachievable Man to yearn after hopelessly forever. Just some dude who maybe would have been nice to go on some dates with but that's not a thing so eh, whatever, no problem.

This feels incredibly freeing. I'm happy to be moving on from the mental block this had created.