I agree. I think he knows, he made the right decision.

I think her feelings for Pacey did throw her for a loop. Even before Pacey kissed her, you could tell that their relationship had blossomed into something more, without either of them realizing it. Helping each other out, without wanting to puke. Pacey going through all that trouble to help the B&B out. Joey getting extremely upset, when she saw Pacey and Jen kissing in the closet. Joey getting upset when she thought Pacey was only hanging out with her, cause Dawson asked him too. Her thinking of Pacey before anyone, to come get her after she and A.J. broke up. She definitely had feelings for Pacey, before they kissed. She confirmed it in 3x23, when she said she knew she loved him from the moment he kissed her and even before that. She knew there was something between, before they kissed. She just hadn't admitted it to herself at that time.

She was too afraid to admit it, because she lived in her own little DJ bubble, that she had been living in it since she was a child. It's what she was use too. Dawson was her friend and she developed feelings for him. Not far fetched at all. He became her security blanket. When she was around him, she didn't have to grow up, or face reality. She got to remain 15 years old. It's why they never worked as a couple. It was the same never ending argument, that had become the ballad of Dawson and Joey. Will they, or won't they and when they do, it doesn't work. It happens a lot with friends. You think because they know you and your comfortable with them, that somehow you convince yourself into thinking, that you're meant for each other and that they're the only one for you and no one else matters. Pacey challenged her though and it made her question everything she thought was right. Pacey saw right through DJ from the very beginning. It finally got to the point, where even he didn't want to hear it anymore, because it was the same thing he had heard for years.

Pacey is the one that made her feel alive. That's a pretty powerful statement from Joey, because it was like her saying, she felt nothing in her life before Pacey and that she wasn't truly happy, until Pacey showed her the way out of the bubble she had grown so use too.