_**“I’m having a really hard time with the One Direction hiatus. Any suggestions?”**_

Has it really been almost a year since they separated?

Forget Brangelina’s split; this breakup was and continues to be something to talk about.

I’m being dramatic, of course, but this parting of ways wasn’t something most people saw coming. For five years, we saw One Direction produce a new album every November that would be followed by a world tour during the summer into early autumn, meaning they really only had two or three months off a year.

You’re probably realizing now that I’m not referring to this as a hiatus, but a breakup, and that’s what it is: a breakup.

One Direction started saying they were going on a hiatus around the time of the release of their last album, _Made in the A.M._ The term “hiatus” translated into a, “Yeah, we’re over this but we don’t want to upset anyone.”

After the departure of Zayn Malik in March 2015, fans became hysterical. I vividly remember my sister bawling on the floor of our yearbook room my senior year of high school as she tried to piece together what went wrong and what the fans could do to fix it.

But there wasn’t anything to fix.

Malik was just exhausted and it was time for that chapter of his life and career to end. This is why when One Direction announced this so-called hiatus, fans like myself knew an era was ending.

Sure, it was weird at first not seeing new tour pictures following _Made in the A.M.,_ and I definitely felt something was missing when November came and my recently-added playlist didn’t feature any songs by One Direction.

As fans, we were so used to the routine of One Direction: the scheduled album and tour, the red carpet events and being able to constantly scroll through our twitter feeds absorbing high-quality photos of Harry Styles driving around in Los Angeles.

But they need to have lives, and specifically ones that aren’t controlled by a record company.

So my advice?

Support their new lives and careers.

I mean, Styles is going to be in a Christopher Nolan film, which is kind of a big deal. Nolan wrote films such as The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar, so this isn’t some low-budget film with a Viner who thinks he’s an actor. I’m talking big leagues here, people.

Malik has signed with RCA Records, which houses big names such as Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake and Kings of Leon. He has released an album titled _Mind of Mine_ which has been successful internationally.

Niall Horan has just released a single titled “This Town” that is honestly terrible, but fans will continue to support it because he was a 1D boy.

Liam Payne signed with Capitol Records and Republic Records this year and expects to release an album early 2017. Will it be good? Probably not, but we’ll give it a listen anyway. He’s also expecting a child with his girlfriend, Cheryl Cole.

And for Louis Tomlinson (my least favorite), he’s a father to a son named Freddie Reign Tomlinson. He’s also made his own record label, Triple Strings Ltd., and is currently working on starting a girl group with the label.

Do I think they’ll get back together? No.

Do I want them to? No.

The boys had their time with One Direction but now it’s time they take their own paths, paths we will still follow as we learn to leave the old days behind and move forward.

Hope this helps and if not just pop in their _This Is Us_ film and take in the glory that is Harry Styles circa 2013. It’s a real beauty.