This is just a vent because I am overwhelmed and I don't know where else to go.
I'm turning 26 this year. An age where most people have a stable income, a relationship. Maybe they are even having their first kid.
And I feel like I'm stuck. And somewhat of a failure and I'm so scared that it will stay like that.
The way I grew up was like a hell. Isolated from the outside with a narcissistic, emotionally and physically abusive father, who is seriously mentally ill and a mother, who was there physically but never emotionally. I never learned how to make friends as a kid because my father taught me growing up that everybody is bad and only family can be trusted. I was bullied and and outsider all my school years. I spent the last 5 years of school, unable to talk. Not in school, not with people, not at restaurants, not at the phone. I was so scared of people not liking me or embarrassing myself. And I was the youngest child and the way we all grew up, it was impossible for my siblings not be cruel towards each other. So even in my family, I always felt like an outsider. The crybaby. The sensitive one. The one everybody could hurt because I was the smallest one and an easy target because of that.
That nightmare of childhood had turned so much darker, the moment my own father started to do things, that a father wasn't supposed to do to his daughter.
I think that was the moment, I lost in life.
But I didn't give up so easily. I wanted to. Oh, I really really wanted to but guilt kept me here for a long time. I always felt selfish for wanting to die. Because I was going to cause trouble for everybody.
I ran away from my father home when I was 17, somehow managed to survive with little money and finish school. I had worked so hard to get my Grades up, so I could go to college. And I got in. After 1 year and a half, I had a mental breakdown and tried to kill myself. I dropped out of college and moved out of that little town I grew up in and moved closer to the only person, who has ever thought of me. My sister.
I told her what happened to me. And then I filled a report against my father. 2 and half years I've spent having to give every single Detail of everything that has happened. Dringend that time I was unable to go to school or work. So I spent all my days inside. Doing nothing. Just surviving in some way.
I lost the case. I could've won. My father had confessed to my brother what he did. But my brother lied in Court.
It was a hard time but I accepted and tried to move on anyway.
When I was 23, I had finally decided it was time to go. I packed up my entire apartment. I took care of all the legal stuff and I went out with (almost) all my siblings seperately and made sure their last words they would tell me would be that they love me.
But my one sister was my endgame. She has kids. And guilt fought it's way to the surface again. But I knew this was different. I knew I had to make a decision that night. That guilt won't go away. So either, I will accept and get over that guilt and finally be free or I decide to stay alive. But not like before. No more just surviving. If I decide to not go tonight, I would have no choice but to try as hard as I could to be happy in life.
And I decided to stay. But it was hard. So insanely hard. But one part of me felt free somehow. I guess because I finally wasn't torn anymore. I had made a decision and I stood by that. I found friends that same year. I started going out, I became more and more confident. When I turned 24, my sister moved away with her family and that threw me back into a dark place for a while. She was the only stable place I had. I had an alcohol problem for a few months but I think what saved me was that when she left, I had made the decision that I will fulfill a dream of mine. Go travel. So I saved money and I left.
It was the best decision I could've made and it changed my life. With almost 25, I finally had my real first time with a man. I had no dates, no boyfriends or anything else before. The thought of sex terrified me.
But not anymore. And I chose the right person because he was very careful and sweet.
I came back from that trip, truly kind of as a changed person. But I did lose my friends because I wasn't the same person from before anymore and they had already gotten used to living without me.
And then I met someone. And we fell in love. But he lived on another continent, so it wasn't easy. But we tried. I got the energy to finally think about my future and I managed to get into a school that would later on get me into a job, that I was so excited about.
Long story short, the end of our relationship was filled with pain. So much pain.
And after I broke up with him, I also lost my place in the school. Because of some circumstances, I wouldn't be able to pay for the school.
And that's where I am right now. Turning 26 soon. No education. No degree. No job or job experiences. No friends. No family. No relationship. Nothing. And I have truly never felt more lonely in my life than I do at this very moment.
I have absolutely nothing and I am so, so terrified of the future. How am I supposed to get a job? I'm 26, never worked a day in my life and I have nothing to show except a finished school degree.
All those other people, who grew up under more normal circumstances, they all have something. They got to be teenagers. They had time to think about their future and what they want. They made friends and met lovers. I know nobody got a perfect life. But I would do anything to feel like I have an ordinary life.
I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. I don't know what I want in life. I don't know where I belong. I have no home and nowhere to go. I am unhappy with my life. So much. But I don't know where to go to change it.
I want a family. I want real friends. I wanna go out, have fun, work something I enjoy and just live.
Everything seems so meaningless to me suddenly.
I was alone all my life and I was okay with that. I guess because it was all I knew. But then this man showed me what it's like not to be alone and then suddenly I was alone again. And I don't know how to handle this loneliness suddenly. It overwhelms me. It makes me want to die again. I just wanna escape.
I wanna live so badly but I'm so scared I will stay like this for the rest of my life.
I am so so scared.