so i wanted to tenderly address something about me that, i guess, has been an ongoing domino effect since earlier in the year. even last year, to be fair. i met someone on my previous blog who i was able to open up to in a way that i haven’t done in years, to a point where i finally had the courage to come out to my family as a csa survivor a few months ago, to support i hadn’t expected. ever since then, i’ve been turning around & looking for the figurative ball & chain i’m used to having around my ankles &, well, not seeing them. which sounds like it would be an amazing thing, & it is, but i’d held my silence for nearly two decades on what was happening / had happened to me, & it’s been. interesting. rediscovering myself, i guess. realising that i can do things that i assumed i couldn’t do beforehand for, i guess, reasons of why bother? i wouldn’t be sticking around anyway.
that was actually my mentality, for many years. for all the years i had been writing on here included. & now i want to stick around, so i don’t mean to cause any alarm on that front, i promise.
afterwards i was exposed to, on here, an incredible amount of, um. pedophilia apologists. people who actually write pedophilia. people who actively write sexual abuse, what i went through, & people who encourage that. & i grew terrified, because i realised there were people i was following who made me feel suddenly unsafe. again, that was months ago, i don’t follow them anymore. but i haven’t been able to shake that feeling ever since.
it’s been an amazing thing to kind of, free myself in the span of a few months that i haven’t been able to do in over fifteen years. i’ve figured out i really like working on my art. not on auto-pilot, like i’ve been doing, like some kind of mechanical surviving method, but as an actual endeavour that makes the people around me happy. i like that. i like working on this novel i have planned,. i’ve gotten the first draft down, i’m working on the second. it’s turning out completely different, but i’m looking forward to the long challenge. not timing it. not measuring how it might look in a future where i feel trapped, over & over again.
i’ve figured out that i’m happy, i think, & that it scares me when i’m not happy. because there is no instant cure for the things that have happened to me, not even telling my family, like i always try & tell myself there is. so i have to be strong enough for myself in a way that i know i can be, & that’s so tiring. i’m working on that.
i’m working on a lot of things, & what i’m trying to say is that, i don’t know where that’s going to take me. i confess, & it’s making me kind of cry typing this out, which feels wild until i realise like, how many years i’ve devoted into escaping into writing here, & into the arms of the beautiful friends i have made here. i confess that i still feel unsafe here, & i still find excuses to do something else, things that make me happier. & i have never been one to force myself to do anything on this blog when i don’t have the muse for it, but the feeling this time during my absences is. different.
it absolutely fucking terrifies me that i’m free of so much, & i really didn’t realise how much that was fucking me up until i started typing this, i’m sorry. i’m actually crying now hahahaha. the thing is, i’m not leaving, i think i’ll still log in, but i’ve never been a very open book to begin with. i’ve never really told any of my friends about this side of my life, & i’m sorry if i’ve sometimes seemed strange & impenetrable. it’s one of my greatest fears to come off that way to the people i love. unfortunately, i think i have to focus even more inwards to really heal outwards as well. so i’m going to be taking a little more time for myself.
this is messy, this whole process is messy. i love you guys too much to never not be around, to never not be supporting you. i just ask for your understanding if i become a little quieter, a little more selective. i’ve spent my whole life feeling unsafe, & i’ve survived the feeling of dread in the bottom of my stomach too long to even blink at it on a web page now. so i will, i think, have to be a little more selective.
please never take my battles as a reflection on your person. if you are reading this at all, i’m embarrassed & touched. i want you to know that in whatever capacity, you have made my life better. you might think i’m joking, but i read the posts of every single person i follow. you have all affected me in a beautiful, positive way. that is a treasure i cannot name.
take care of yourselves. i’ll try to do the same. & i’ll definitely be around. <3