“I know I’m not easy to love. I’m a chronic over-thinker. I overreact more than I should…And every once in a while, I might be a little insecure. But if I am in love with you, I can promise you wholeheartedly that you will be loved with so much passion and intensity that you’ll forget what life felt like before I came along. You will always be cared for and you will always have someone in your corner. Maybe I’m not the best at being loved - But I like to think I’m pretty good at loving.”
every morning i wake up & get my coffee & i recite in my head this excerpt from ‘invitation,’ by mary oliver: “it is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world.” & i just say it over & over again until it sticks to my mind for the rest of the day. it is a serious thing. i am alive. i am so lucky. this fresh morning i get the chance to live again & again & again
he says i hate everyone except you and that is addictive and that is kind of romantic and beautiful because you’re young and you’re kind of a sarcastic asshole too and you don’t like bad boys, per say, but you don’t really like good ones either. and you like that you were the exception, it felt like winning.
except life is not a romance book, and he was kind of being honest. he doesn’t learn to be nice to your friends. he only tolerates your family. you have to beg him to come with you to birthday parties, he complains the whole time. you want to go on a date but - people are often there, wherever you’re going. he’s just so angry. about everything, is the thing. in the romance book, doesn’t he eventually soften? can’t you teach him, through your own sense of whimsy and comfort?
at first - you know introverts often need smaller friend groups, and honestly, you’re fine staying at home too. you like the small, tidy life you occupy. you’re not going to punish him for his personality type.
except: he really does hate everyone but you. which means he doesn’t get along with his therapist. which means he has no one to talk to except for you. which means you take care of him constantly, since he otherwise has no one. which means you sometimes have to apologize for him. which means he keeps you home from seeing your friends because he hates them. you’re the single exception.
about a decade from this experience, you’ll type into google: how to know if a relationship is codependent.
he wraps an arm around you. i hate everyone except you. these days, you’re learning what he’s actually confessing is i have very little practice being kind.
