Okay, it is time to make this blog pay for itself in the form of cheap therapy.
Seems here lately every single female friend I have is
having relationship troubles, and it reminds me of a person I used to be close
to.
Years ago, we used to be best friends. He would come over
and visit every chance he got, helping with the kids and stuff. He was so sweet
back in those daysā¦
When the kids would go to bed we would sit and chat for
hours! I so adored his company and the refreshing way he looked at things. Even
though we were just friends he made me feel special, you know?
Eventually time wore on and we would spend hours on the
phone together while he drove (he was a truck driver). One night he asked about
us maybe becoming a couple, with possible marriage in mind at an unknown time
in the future. It was so sweet how he brought it up I wanted to cry. To this
day it is one of my most cherished memories.
Then came the request for us to move closer so that he
could be around more. Considering I lived several hours away, it was a
reasonable request.
At first all was well after the move. He was wonderful in
the beginning, and even surprised me with a cell phone as a gift. I was
flattered and touched.
Slowly, things began to change. When we would all go
places together it seemed I could do nothing right. I would wear heels and
dress attractively to please him, but it only seemed to annoy him. He would
complain that I walked too slow, āwith my head up my buttā or āmy nose to the
ground.ā His comments cut me to the quick, and eventually I began to avoid
going places with him.
Then one day I began to feel that the cellphone wasnāt a
gift ā it was an invisible chain. If I did not answer when he called he would
ring it over and over, and get upset because I wouldnāt answer. Wherever I was,
whatever I was doing, I had better answer that phone.
I really began to dislike that stupid cell phone.
I was dependent upon the safety it represented, however.
He would get mad and punish me by taking gifts back ā including the cell phone,
leaving me afraid to go anywhere in my older car for fear of breakdowns.
As I rebelled from the tightening noose and shied away
from the verbal cuts, we started growing apart. Whenever he offered me a gift I
learned to either refuse, or pay him for it somehow. I told him it was an honor
thing, but honestly it was because I resented getting comfortable with
something then having it jerked away whenever the mood struck him. I purchased
my own cell phone, keeping it in reserve at first for whenever he demanded his
phone back. Eventually I began using it full time and returned his phone to
him.
Anyhow, we grew apart. He stopped visiting as much, while
he was telling others that we were closer than ever.
Then he told his employer that we were married, and used
me as an excuse to get extra time off of work. By then we only saw each other
maybe once every few months for a couple hours. That hurt, but itās all good.
He would make promises to spend time with us, then stand
us up cause āsomething came up.ā I learned that if he wouldnāt answer his phone
the night before he was not coming the next day. Whenever he was around,
especially in public, he felt he should be in charge, which I resented.
I feel now that I started the rift between us a long time
ago, but I tried to discuss the lack of closeness in our relationship, and a
need to spend more time together. I was rebuffed more than once. So I quit.
When I became so lonely that I was starting to look
outside of the relationship for friendship, I broke up with him. I didnāt want
to disrespect what we used to have by cheating on him.
Now we rarely talk, and while he has called me for help
getting to a couple of appointments, we donāt visit anymore.
I miss what we used to have, miss the person he was in the
beginnning, and still mourn that all of these years later.
I have to remind myself that people change, and I donāt
miss the cutting words he liked to use when he was annoyed. I donāt miss
listening to him scream and rave at other drivers on the road. I donāt miss how
he enjoyed punishing me by taking away things that he called āgiftsā whenever I
did something he disliked. I donāt miss how he would look at me and tell me to
do something and the fear I would feel inside.
I am proud of how I would face that fear by brazenly doing
whatever it was he wanted me to stop, and for telling him he was out of line a
couple of times.
Perhaps it was my resistance to his authority that placed
the last few nails in the coffin of our relationship. I donāt know.
I miss what we used to have, back in the beginning. I miss
his refreshing attitude, his open way of living his life regardless of
approval. I miss the live and let-live attitude he had at the beginning. I
donāt miss the person he became. I donāt miss that at all.
He blames our breakup on me, and perhaps he is right. But
itās all good. Some things were never meant to be. People change, and we just
changed in opposite directions.
