The hardest part about change is stepping out of our "comfort zone" because our comfort zone was not a healthy place to be...it was simply comfortable because it was familiar, we knew how to act and what to expect.
Once recovery helped me get to know "that stranger called me" I learned that I had dreams to fulfill, and I was blessed with good health to go ahead living life well, as life should be lived. I let go of what was not mine to control, other people and the past. How freeing that was.
I hear the elation in your post, b&b, you too have broken the chains of codependency that bound you to the past. Be free, follow your dreams and don't look back because you're not going there.
Hugs