Three months after Zach Bryan announced the end of their year-long relationship, the TikToker—who is also known as Brianna “Chickenfry” on social media—revealed that the country singer’s behavior was dimming her light during their relationship.

“When I walk into a room, I want to talk to everyone,” she told Sports Illustrated in an interview published Jan. 15. “When the relationship first started, that became a problem for him; I was talking too much or I was being too much, and maybe the spotlight was not on him enough.”

“That’s how he made me feel,” she continued. “’Oh, I need to dim myself down.’”

But after leaving her toxic relationship in the past, she shared how great it’s felt to bask in the small joys of engaging total strangers in pleasant small talk.

“I’m walking down the street, I’m at the crosswalk—I’m sparking up a conversation,” Brianna said. “I’m in the bodega, talking to the bodega guy for 20 minutes too long now. I’m finally talking to my hairdresser again, where I used to just sit in the chair.”

“I’m finding that little spark of life back in myself,” she added, “now that one person that felt like a doom cloud over me at all times is gone.”

After all, this wasn’t the first time the 25-year-old—who alleged she had been emotionally abused during her relationship with the “Pink Skies” singer—pointed out her ex’s toxic traits.

“In the beginning,” Brianna told Alix Earle on a December episode of the Hot Mess podcast, “he was so amazed by how strong a woman I was. I was so opinionated—it was like his favorite thing about me. Like every room I walked into, I’m the same person in every room.”

“Then slowly it just started deteriorating,” she continued. “It would start with like little nitpicks about, ‘Well I think you’re better than this job.’ Or ‘you shouldn’t really say that online, I don’t really like the way you dress.’ Just like little things where it makes you question like, ‘Oh are they right? ‘Cause they have my back with everything else, maybe they’re looking out for me.’”