There is so much pressure to be beautiful. To be beautiful means to have beautiful skin. To look flawless. To look healthy. What if you were covered in scars? What if you had chicken skin on your arm? What if you always felt the need to cover up and camouflage your body? When you look better covered up than exposed…shouldn’t it be the other way around? What if you were so ashamed of how your body looked you wore sweaters in the summer time? Picture a hot sunny day, the sun rays are beating down on you and you had to keep yourself covered. You looked around and saw so many girls in tank tops or halter tops. It saddened me. It made me depressed. I wanted to go sleeveless, I wanted to show off my skin, I wanted to be cool and not sweating like a stuffed pig. But no. The stares would be unbearable. The looks of disgust, the frowns were something I could not handle. I stayed covered up. Covered in long sleeves. Long hot sleeves. Hiding myself from snarls, stares and disgust. I keep my arm protected. I took pictures on my right side never on my left. I hid my arm from everybody and everything. Not by choice. Because I had to!
Month: March 2020
True Colors
Oh, I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Where to begin? It’s like I have a million and one words to write but cannot even begin. It’s frustrating and makes me infuriated at the same time. So let’s take it back about six years ago. A new person started working at my work. Let’s name her Beth. She kind of stayed to herself. She never really spoke to me. I would approach her and talk to her. We would see each other on a daily basis at work so I would make an effort to go and spend time with her.
Years would go by and we started hanging out at my house. She would come over and hang out with my family. We would have a girls day where we would go shopping and get our nails done. We opened up to one another about our past relationships. She was single and I am married so she would share her stories and I would share mine.
I really felt a bond with her. Beth would go and buy me little gifts here and there for my birthday and Christmas. I would buy her birthday gifts. I honestly thought she was a good friend to me. I have always wanted that kind of friendship. She was my go to girl. She was always there when I needed to talk or just to hang out.
I then noticed a shift. It was very slight but I did notice. I noticed it was me coming to see her more. It was me more going out of my way to do things for her. I noticed that I was becoming a second priority. Another girl at my work would go and buy her lunch like everyday and I noticed that they became closer. It hurt but I just brushed it off. I know my worth in any relationship. It came to a point where she started talking more about this other girl and how she would buy her things. Well, I am not that fortunate to constantly be spending money on a friend when I have a family to raise. Beth then started putting so much attention on her daughter and her daughter treated her like utter crap. Beth would go above and beyond for daughter and her daughter was so ungrateful. Beth spent hours making her a graduation present and her daughter said “Thanks” and then shoved it into her closet. Her daughter really used her. Beth just kept doing more and more things for her daughter and every time the daughter would be so ungrateful. It brought Beth to tears. She would break down and cry to me about everything. I was always there for her. Beth’s aunt had passed away and I did everything in my power to be there for her. I comforted her when she would have her breakdowns. I would constantly check on her. I offered to help her with anything that she needed. Beth’s grandma then passed away. This hit Beth so hard. She distanced herself from everybody. She stopped taking care of herself. She would blow me off numerous times when I tried to be there for her. I didn’t know what to do or how to be there for her. I gave her some space. When she did come around she placed the blame on me. I had no words. All I knew was that I was trying my best to be a good friend to her.
Beth’s birthday just passed. I went and got a really cute gift and made her feel special. I had some people sing to her. I tried my best to make her feel great on her day. Her daughter comes to see her at work and brings her food. Beth gets overly excited, almost starts crying and posts everything about her daughter on Snapchat. Not one single mention of me. Not one single mention of what I did for her. I asked Beth if she would want to come over and celebrate her birthday at my house. She didn’t want to come over unless my husband had a single friend come over. I begged her and begged her. She didn’t want to come over and see me. She wanted to see him. As I am writing this, I want to hit myself upside the head and say DUH!! All the times I had to beg for her to come over and hang out with me. The times when she would go see other people first and if there was time left then she could come see me. The fact that she never invited me inside her house. The fact that I was never to go hang out at her house. Why didn’t I see those as signs? I guess you really have to look back at situations to realize how people are.
So, fast forward years later. Beth gets hurt at work. I had been overwhelmed with a ton of work and never even had a break from my workspace. I finally had the chance to go and see her. Come to find out she had been absent for two days. I immediately texted Beth to find out if she was ok. Four hours had passed and I had not heard a word. I then went to her supervisor to find out what had happened. Her supervisor had let me see text messages between them about what had happened to Beth. I then had several employees coming up to me telling me things about Beth that I had no idea. It hit me like a semi-truck. I woke up. I was done. I was done being a last priority. I was done being treated like this. How could other people know what’s going on when her when own good friend has no idea? She then finally texts me four hours later to let me know what had happened. I let her know that I had already heard from her supervisor. No more conversation. No more text messages. Two days later I get a text that says “Hope all is good. Have a good day and take care.” I responded with “Thanks you too.” I then go onto snapchat the next day to see a post written by Beth that says “I thought you were a good friend to me. Theres a reason why I never wanted to open up again because I knew I would get hurt.” It was posted with a sad crying face. At this point I am lost for words. Now I am the bad friend. I am the bad person. I am the reason why she never opened up. See, now with me, I am not the one to just be quiet. I went straight to Instagram and wrote her a huge message about exactly how I felt. I pointed out things she was doing. I pointed out how I felt like I was second priority. She responds with “I feel the best thing is for you not to have someone like me in your life. Obviously, I wasn’t a good friend to you. Obviously there are better people in your life that have and will be there for you more than I ever did. You deserve better than me in your life.” In other words she no longer wants to be my friend. Just like that!! Poof!! She no longer wants to be my friend because I told her how I felt. I told her what she was doing to me. BAM!!! She wants nothing to do with me. I had no words. I didn’t even respond. I left it alone. I went and checked my social media and she did not delete herself. Two weeks went by and she was still on my social media. I went ahead and texted her about why she would still want to be on my social media. She says sorry and that she will remove herself and that would be my birthday gift. I wish I could make this nonsense up. I once again did not engage. That was my birthday gift. Finalizing our friendship that she ended. How are you supposed to feel after that? How are you supposed to heal after that? I guess right now I am frustrated, angry, hurt and confused. I am at a total loss of words. I just don’t understand why people act the way they do? If I am a bad person let me know. If I hurt you in anyway, let me know. Just let me know. Friendships can always be repaired, right? Not this one. I am no longer going to allow myself to be hurt. I am no longer going to allow myself to be used.
Happy Birthday!
Looking back to how I was raised a word that continually jumps out is “forced”. Forced smiles, forced acting good, forced acting like I want to be around these people, and forced interactions. Forced to behave or else. Forced to go give hugs and kisses to people I didn’t know. Forced to be on my best behavior of sitting quietly. I remember only being with my extended family only on holidays. I laugh now about it, but in all reality, they really were my “Holiday Family.”
Not family that would be there for you when times got tough. Not family that would want to involved in your life. Not family that actually cared about your well-being. No, just family you saw in the holidays where you had to fake everything.
Fast forward years later to my birthday. Let me just say that I hate social media. Its an opportunity for fake relationships and fake interactions. My lovely mom goes ahead and makes a facebook post about my birthday. A cousin of mine then decides to write “Tell her I said Happy Birthday.” My mom goes on to speak about how I have been feeling lately. My cousin then wants more information. This triggered me so badly I felt compelled to get onto my moms facebook page to respond. I am finding that the older I get, the less of a filter I have. I did my best to maintain composure but I did give her a piece of my mind. What could have possibly triggered me, you ask. Well, I am sorry but I have a facebook. My cousin knows that I have a Facebook page. She also has Facebook messenger and a phone. If she REALLY cared about how I was doing, why wouldn’t she just friend me on Facebook? Why wouldn’t she have asked for my phone number? No instead she immediately calls my mom to discuss what I had written. I just do not have words for how I feel right now.
I have tried numerous times to reach out to my cousins to build some kind of relationship. I have asked to hang out over the weekends, to go shopping, and for them to come hang out at my house. They either never responded or just gave excuses.
I always have to question my reaction in situations such as these because I know that I get triggered easily. I guess at first I felt angry. I felt angry because I do not understand why somebody would do that.
I have to say for the remainder of the day I was in a very bad mood. According to my mom, my cousin is supposed to call me. I doubt this will ever happen. If if they did call, I wouldn’t have much to say. I mean, what could I say. Everything that I would want to say would be bitter and negative. I refuse to live my life feeling bitter. Today I choose to put it on “let go.” Just let it go and continue loving those around me that truely love and care for me. Happy Birthday to me!!

