Monday, 30 July 2012

The Reality is Anger & Hurt

Let’s look underneath the positive spin and strategy I have tried to employ for the last 4 months at the real reality of my situation. My husband who I gave everything to and loved to pieces cheated on me with 3 different women in one month after I had spent two years following our wedding, working my butt off to support him and keep a roof over our head whilst he was sick. This wasn’t “I’ve fallen for someone else, I'm sorry” this was reckless, selfish and despicable – he just did not give a damn.

I really believed in love and marriage. I am naturally a very trusting person but this has literally pulled my world apart. I do not love him anymore, some might say you can’t just turn that off, but I can assure you I do not. It’s not the loss of him that is the issue it is the loss of the life I built and what that has meant going forward. It has completely ruined my ability to trust people and I mean everyone. I do not even trust my best friend at the moment and that is a horrible place to be. 

Everything I worked for over the last 6 years is irrelevant, the plans I had don’t apply – at least not in the timeline I had for them and I honestly don’t know if I want those things anymore. I am suspicious of people, paranoid of others behaviour and second guess everything twice. I struggle to make a decision let alone trust I have made the right one.  

Every day I am working to put myself back on my feet but it seems there is always a new hurdle. I have tried to open myself to new possibilities but I’m not at all sure I am brave enough to see them through. I am more fragile now that I have been in my lifetime and I hate that. 

I am angry, incredibly hurt and very lost –  I realise this isn’t going to ease quickly despite my determination to keep going. It has definitely made my standards for others higher, I’m not going to apologise for that. I didn’t deserve this and I will not allow myself to be obliterated like that again so to play a part in my life going forward it has to be earned by actions, which speak a whole lot louder than words.

Friday, 6 July 2012

First day of my future...

So a weekend of change is looming…a change for the better I hope!

Tomorrow marks the day my new flatmate moves in. I haven’t shared a home (bar for with the ex) since I was at Uni so whilst I know I am quite easy going I am sure this will be some adjustment! I am really looking forward to it, not only for the company she will provide (I am not a fan of living alone!) but because I see it as an opportunity to settle down now and get my life back in order. 

It is 3 months to the day today from when I received that delightful text that turned my world upside down and boy, it has been somewhat of a roller coaster ever since. All the organisation and planning that normally runs through my life has been non-existent, I have simply lived. Not that this was a bad thing, I have had some truly excellent times and really good memories from throwing caution to the wind and getting out there and involved – I still have plans in the coming months that I said yes to in my “do not say no to anything” month which I am looking forward to. The flip side is everything else; jobs at home/chores, financial planning, sending birthday cards etc and even work to some extent, have just been things I’ve had to do when they become urgent. I haven’t completed anything to my usual standard and the gradual accumulation of last minute.com efforts has resulted in a lasting feeling anxiety, which is only growing day by day. 

For my housemate to move in I have to move out of the “big” bedroom, into the box room – or as is now termed “diddy blue room”, my new space, all to myself (+ the cats). I have put a lot of effort into this room, getting it right so despite the size, it will work for me and I will feel comfortable, calm and most of all, secure staying in it. I have had a bed/platform type thing built to my design which has a huge amount of storage concealed underneath. Shelving and new plug sockets built around it and bought a wardrobe/drawer unit to slot in the remaining space. The walls are baby blue in colour, with the furniture and everything else white. The middle door on the wardrobe is a full length mirror and I have some original Winnie the Pooh sketches in frames (21st birthday present) to hang on the wall. It will, when finished tonight, look beautiful. Tomorrow I will move all my things into it, put my photos up on the shelves and organise my wardrobe. I really feel I will be happy once I am in and hopefully sleep like a baby tomorrow night! 

So once the diddy blue room and I are acquainted and my flatmate is in and settled I have a serious project to complete. I need a week, month, 12 month, 3 year plan written for me. I intend to write this as though there will only be me to consider in the next 3 years – this is not because I expect to be ‘single’ for all the 3 years, I don’t – it is to ensure I don’t lose sight of what is important to me and what I want to achieve out of my life. I think perhaps, well I know(!) I lost this when I married my ex, maybe even before that. With hindsight, a lot of the decisions I have made were more weighted towards not what would be best for me or even “us” but for him. I wasn’t happy in my marriage for the last year and this was largely because I had lost my way. I had even perhaps changed as a person somewhat. The pressures of life, debt and his illness and dependency really ate away at me. I spent no time doing anything for me, in fact nothing was about me and how I felt or what I might like. That shouldn’t have happened – I should have prioritised myself more, which I did in the latter months and the ex checked out (no bad thing) but by doing so, I again lost my footing. Of everything that has happened, the only emotion I have not yet shed attached to it all is anger at myself for allowing him to have such control/influence over me. I will not allow this to happen again and I think by having a defined goal/ambition plan I can check myself against this down the road of my new relationship(s) and keep myself true to me.

So peeps, a planning weekend - this is actually the most exciting bit, I love planning and printing out my charts etc. Such a geek! I may even go crazy and frame the 3 year one on my wall in the diddy blue room just to keep myself focused every morning! I have no idea what I am going to put in this plan though - its a big white sheet of paper where actually, for the first time in my life, ANYTHING is possible...what an incredible place to be!