I didn’t have a “normal” upbringing, I think I have made that abundantly clear in this blog already. The basic things that most people just grew up taking for granted weren’t there for me. I didn’t grow up knowing my parents loved me, I grew up hearing my vary existence made their life more difficult. I didn’t have the certainty that I was safe in my house, instead I would wake up to strangers hovering over my bed. I wasn’t protected and cherished, I wasn’t given the same starting point as everyone else.
I was 18 years old before I was able to wake up in my own bed and know that no one was going to come in during the middle of the night or be there when I woke up in the morning. I was told not to show emotion or things would be worse for me, to this day I still don’t know how to properly show what I am feeling. I grew up hearing I was worthless and even today people who are supposed to care about me treat me as an after thought. I was taught love is conditional and only those who do as they are told will be loved, so I make myself what I think people want me to be in order to win approval.
I have no real concept of who I am, because until a few years ago I was nobody and everybody. I was a phantom who could put on a mask and be whomever you wanted. Now I am real, the ghost is gone, but I am a tiny person traded in a body that isn’t mine. I have no concept of how to be an adult because I am still just trying to learn how it is to be a human being. I was stunted but I am growing. Everyday I try to grow.
The people around me don’t understand, or see that the things that seem to come so easily for them are difficult for me. Sometimes I wish I had Autism or Down Syndrome, some label that I could give so people would understand that I don’t experience life the way they do. It’s all new and scary and just being there is a huge effort for me. Instead I am met with disdain, my efforts scorned and laughed at and I am left wondering why do I even bother. How is this better than being the phantom?
The sad conclusion I reached today is….what if this is how it will always be? What if I will spend my life trying to connect, to be more than I am, and keep getting shoved down? Is that my role in this life? To be on the inside looking out? Trapped inside a tiny box, locked away from any real life.
It’s things like this that make me wonder why I should even bother, if everything I do just fails in the end anyways.