I cannot bring myself to care about the future, I cannot bring myself to dig for hope.
My mother has said all my life that she doesn't believe in beating children, her mother or father never did it so why should she? One month ago, my mother beat me. She raised her hands at me, she scratched me, she hit me. I met her when I was 7 years old following the passing of my Grandmother and the ushering of her marriage to my Stepdad. We have never bonded, in my 20 years of life I do not think we have ever spent a day together with just each other. I've been plagued with the awareness of her indifference through the subtlety of actions that come with being the odd one out. The last piece of bread no one wants to touch, the wet food that sticks to the sink when you finish washing dishes. I have spent the duration of my short life believing wholeheartedly I was not meant to be loved. So when my mother raised her hands to do the very thing she swore she wouldn't do to her children, hit them, that subconscious belief rose up to the surface and has consumed me since. The hitting corroborated the truth I didn't want to believe, my own mother does not see me as her child.
My biological father left me and upon searching for and finding him, he rejected me again. My teenage years were spent being assaulted by my Stepfather. He took my virginity, my first experiences. He took my body from me. In high school I never spoke, I became a recluse and had not a single friend. Except one, my best friend who I confided in with everything. We started developing feelings for one another and with my belief that I was unworthy of love I was cruel to him and cut him off completely, I ran away.
I decided I would be different and grow up, I decided college would be a change and for a while it was. New friends, new experiences, new knowledge. But coming home everything I've tried so hard to get over would make its way back to me. All the feelings of rejection, the feeling of my own body being violated, the deep desire to love and the regret of pushing away people I love, it came back to me with every hit and every scratch my mother inflicted on my body.
I've been plagued with nightmares that she's waiting for me to sleep so she can kill me. I spend the day having flashbacks of all the things I did out of insecurity and hatred of my own self that I wish I could take back. And I hate myself for being vulnerable enough to be taken advantage of, it's always felt like a stain I could never wash away. These past few weeks I realized I am not one of the strong ones. And most importantly I realized my desire the fire that led me to hope and believe I could change after high school has been extinguished. My cowardice holds me back now and the questions, who, what, when, where, how? The how the big fat how. How to lay down and sleep and rest and release myself of this heaviness around my shoulders called life? What is the purpose of this? Who sent me here? Where can I leave? When should I leave?
I do not have the energy to hope anymore. I cannot dig for it. I cannot bring myself to care about the future. I simply wish to be at peace now.