I’m almost 26 now. It’s Mother’s Day today, and I never know how to feel on this “holiday.” My grandma died today, which only adds to the confusion I never fail to feel. I am a complete outcast in my family—not because I want to be or choose to be, but because they will never understand me. Not because they couldn’t try to, but because they don’t want to.
I have this hate inside me for every single one of them. It’s the most confusing feeling in the world. I want them to love me and see me, but they just don’t want to. Even when they say they do, it’s all pretend. They tell me I’m not alone, but I am.
When I lost Nana, I lost the one person who loved me—who really loved me. Everything always comes back to her. Every time someone lets me down—including myself—I always think of her, of what she would say to make it “better,” to make it make sense. I miss her on this day. I miss her everyday.
My own mother hated me. I don’t know if she ever loved me. Maybe there was a time when she did—when I was a baby and didn’t have a mind of my own, when I was just a thing to fill her loneliness. Once I wanted a life of my own, I became worthless. I was selfish and self-centered. It was “fuck me” for wanting a normal life—for wanting friends, a family, a home.
She was right about one thing, though: that my family would never love or care about me the way I needed them to.
Somehow, I always end up excusing her behavior… her abuse. I was a child. She permanently stunted who I could have been. She made me into her punching bag—and then she died. She got the easy way out. She created me, abused me, and left me. Maybe her mental illness was to blame, but that doesn’t change what she did.
I’m so sick of feeling guilty for how I acted as a child. I’m constantly embarrassed. Why am I the one who keeps taking the blame for the abuse I suffered?
The person I became in the summer of 2024 is who I am most ashamed of. I became hateful. I became an alcoholic. I became a cheater. I became someone who projected their hurt—and I will never let myself get that bad again. I became my abuser, and I hate that I allowed that. I hate that it was within me.