Saturday, December 3, 2016

Miley Cyrus is My Spirit Animal

Hello Lovelies,

Now before people see this and think I'm crazy, I have to say this: I am. Ok. Read on.

From a young age I was always told that I have to be a good Christian and love Jesus and be a good girl. I was always told that sexuality wasn't anything to embrace until marriage and even then only in the bedroom and only with your heterosexual partner. Another thing I was told was that I had to look good so that people saw my family a certain way - basically that we were perfect. When I acted in a way they didn't tell me I should or if I thought differently than they told me I should, then I was being a "follower" and was just listening to everything that my friends said and that the public school system was forcing it's "secular agenda" on me. Anyways... you get the idea. I was being forced to form to an image of someone that was not who I really was.

Now that I am an adult, I have the courage to say that I wasn't that person. I wasn't happy being that person. It was not a healthy thing for me to be that person. When I was 15 I started having sex and when my first and I broke up I started sleeping around. Luckily I realized a friend of mine since I was 13 (I was 17 at this time) was someone to build a life with. We are married now but before then he deployed overseas (he was in the military) and I moved in with his family, then in with my parents again, then up to Washington with a friend, then back to my parents place before moving out officially when I got married. When I moved out I started mutilating my hair, drinking and smoking and smoking weed - something I would never have done back then nor is it something I'd tell them I do now.

Now, the point. Miley Cyrus is someone that I can empathize with. She grew up having to play the part of good girl Hannah Montana for Disney Channel and as soon as she ended that contract she got to acknowledge that she wasn't happy and she wasn't that person. She was then out of the spotlight. Now, I think, she got passionate about helping the LBGTQ community and the troubled and homeless teens in this country but she knew that nobody would notice her screaming about her foundation (Happy Hippie) if she didn't do something drastic to get back into the public eye. This is when she created the New Miley Cyrus. The one who was overtly sexual, did drugs, acted out, and was in general a "bad influence". But in the end, she got what she wanted: her voice back but this time with her own words.

Here's the thing people: Miley did what she knew she needed to do to survive and create a new person from who she used to be. She had to find a way to force the world to see her the way she wanted them to. I feel like lately I have had to do that too. I have had to force people around me to see me as the person I am. I admire the courage she had to go wild and not allow people to force her into the mold that they cast for her. While I may not be going nearly as wild as she did - mainly due to being poor as fuck - but I want to say "fuck it" to all the people in this town that I'm back being stuck in (where I grew up) and recreate myself. I may have to literally say "fuck you" to people I used to know in order to move forward. I may have to keep my colorful hair and embrace that I enjoy it instead of let people tell me that I look like shit. Because you know what? Fuck those people.

It's a weird rant I think... but I really do admire her.

Thanks for letting me word vomit.

XOXO - Sarah

Monday, November 7, 2016

A Late Sunday Tea Talk

Today is definitely not a Sunday... sorry about that! But I've been super busy with work and life.

I'm gonna give a brief overview because I'm tired and will probably go into detail sooner rather than later.

Work is going great. I LOVE my coworkers and it already seems like I have potential to one day be a manager. That's awesome. Like today, I was training the newest hire. I've only been there 3 weeks and they are having me do that. That's awesome. :)

The ex thing: I saw him and now I'm no longer afraid. That's pretty much all to say. :)

That's pretty much it right now. :) I am loving life for the most part. Had a falling out with a super important person in my life... but sometimes that happens.

We'll talk soon! <3

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Tea Talks: Sunday 10/30/2016

Hello Lovelies!

Let me tell you, this week has been great! I started working at Starbucks in the Safeway store here in town (for those not from the West of the US it's a grocery store). I started on Tuesday and today is my first day off. At first, it was a little hard because I had to be there at 5:30am and I'm used to sleeping for 16ish hours a day. Now that I'm used to sleeping about 8 hours or less a night, I am doing pretty good!

My coworkers are pretty great for the most part! I only really have one person I don't get along with but that's ok. I FINALLY after 4+ jobs have a female manager (in this case 2) that I adore! They're professional but still know when to joke around and have some fun. We also have open communication about work and personal lives without judgement. To me, that's one of the most important things. I know most people reading this don't know me but I am honestly not a judgmental person unless you are horrible to children, special needs folk, or animals. So, being able to not be judged either is a breath of fresh air. I can't tell you how much I like that they are willing to work with me to make sure that I have one day with my husband a week. Basically he works from 7am to 11am, school from 12pm to 2:30pm and then work again from 4pm to 8:30pm... then he has homework. The only day he doesn't work or go to school is on Friday. I can't tell you how grateful I am for a boss/manager who respects and understands that.

I'm trying to think about what I want to do on my days off from here on. Obviously on Friday's I have plans to be made with my man, but other than that, I don't really have many interests.

I'm thinking about taking up photography again. Maybe that could be something I make a point of doing on my days off/after/before work. That could be super fun now that I'm not doing it for school or work. I could also go to Salem on my free time to shop or just explore. I realize now that I'm back in Oregon that there's a lot I haven't seen or done. So, I want to do that. :)

I might also volunteer at an animal shelter. That could be a lot of fun. :)

Anyways, I will talk to y'all soon. Maybe next time I'll show you what I look like in my "uniform".

XOXO - Sarah

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Something To Get Off My Chest

Hello everyone.

Today, I am going to talk about something a little bit tough for me. I'm going to go into a little more depth about my first serious relationship than I have in the past. The thing is, I have been working really hard to gain closure on the relationship and it's hard. This is because the relationship wasn't easy because BOTH of us weren't all that great. I know I was a bit irrationally emotional at times and wasn't super mature in any way. But I was also 15 (he was over 2.5 years older) and it was my first relationship. It lasted exactly 18 months and no. I wasn't perfect. He wasn't either. That's what I'm going to talk about mostly.

When we first met and were talking, he was dating a person that I considered to be my enemy number one. He was talking to me in a flirtatious manner while dating her. He also had a chick friend that he was super into at the time. At one point, he told me that he liked me, but I'd always be his third choice basically. I really liked him at that point so it was hurtful to hear that. Then he and the girl broke up and he decided to date me. So, starting out the relationship I was under the impression that I had to prove that he should like me more than the other two. That I should be his number one. For me, that meant more or less that I should sleep with him to make him like me most.

It was completely consensual, but afterwards, I didn't feel anything emotionally. It was kind of weird because growing up I was always taught that girls are supposed to be in love with their "first" and that we had to stay together. I didn't feel any of that. I then decided to commit to the being his number one even more so because I wanted to prove something. I'm not entirely sure what I was trying to prove, but I was trying to prove something.

He used to lie a lot about things, too. One of the biggest things was how many sexual partners he had in the past. He always told me it was a huge number. He also had nudes and pictures of his exes and girls he liked on his phone still. On top of that, one of the girls he had nudes of he pointed out one day and told me he had a threesome with her and the girl who was his #2. I was a bit bothered by it because I got super insecure and competitive. He finally came clean about 7 months into the relationship. I was not happy because I had JUST come to terms with the idea beforehand.

My family hated him and my friends hated him because of how controlling he was. Nobody liked our relationship. I didn't either. I was pretty submissive to him. He actually used to tell me (we went to church together) that it was "God's will" for the woman to be submissive to the man and that I needed to follow that.

He used to tell that other chick how pretty she was all the time and such and it made me even more insecure. I was getting a lot of people calling me fat and things like that at about the same time so it made me kind of go overboard on trying to be the prettiest and skinniest. So, I basically stopped eating for a while. It got so bad that I could barely keep warm in a heavy coat just walking from class to class. The one thing I can say about him in this though was when he saw me one day, he was super upset because he could see pretty much all my ribs and my spine and basically all my bones. He at that point begged me to eat because I was obviously killing myself.

When it comes to the sex life, I won't talk too much about it. For the most part he was pretty good about it. There was just one or two times where he was aggressive and not really willing to listen to my "no". Those were not good times. I don't want to talk about it, however. So, I won't.

One of the biggest things for me that lead to our breakup was the fact that he started to try and get me to cut off friends in my life. One that he had me cut off is now my husband actually.

I am saying all this to talk about why I broke up with him - which will bring me to the next part. I want to say again that neither of us was perfect by any means. I was definitely not mature at that point, but to my defense I was 15 and he was my first real boyfriend. How was I supposed to know how to act?

Fast forward to our break up. The break up was not pretty initially. He was very upset, which I get. He begged me to be his "fuck buddy" because I wasn't "allowed to ever have sex with another man". He was so possessive that I told him that I cheated on him with my, at the time, best friend (hubby's best friend) to try and get him to be mad enough he'd leave me alone.

At one point I started dying my hair blonde and started doing things I wanted to try and I remember he would say things like "Now that you dumped me you're doing things I always told you would look good on you. I always told you these things because you asked what you could do to make me happier and now that we're broken up you're finally doing them". Looking back, I wish I had said to him "THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT!!! I DID NOT MEAN WHAT CAN I DO TO BE MORE APPEALING TO YOU!!" It's like so my being blonde would have made him happier to be with me. I think this speaks pretty well for itself.

We ended up trying to be friends for about three months before his possessiveness and and aggression escalated to a very vicious point. It got so bad he was trying to convince me he was going to die if we didn't get back together, he was always trying to get physical when we hung out, he would get mad at me for random shit, and then not understand when I was not making any effort to be nice to him. I will admit, I was an immature bitch when we were trying to be friends. I guess I just was tired of it. But the thing is, he started to take things way too far.

At about the three month mark I believe I told him I just wanted space to do my own thing and move on. He then escalated his possessiveness over me. He started harassing me about being fuck buddies more often, he was obsessive. He was always messaging me - even when I didn't reply. Most of all he was trying to upset me and guilt me into being his girlfriend again because "the doctor said if I don't get over this that I'm going to die". I was such a nervous wreck that I talked to an adult lady that I trusted about it and she advised me to ignore him for a week and then decide what to do. I took her advice and it really set the tone for how I look back at the relationship now.

When he was being ignored he started out annoyed, then got guilt trippy, then got mad, then got angry, then got sobby, then got vicious. Near the end of the week he was texting me about 30x a day, Skype messaging me at least 15x a day, tweeting at me around 10x a day, calling a couple times, fb messaging a lot as well. He was calling me a "heartless bitch" and just a "bitch" and just over all being threatening and vicious. It was so scary that I have a hard time thinking about it. He was posting on my wall frequently too and somehow his mom got involved. She was pretty horrible too. My "sister" at the time told her to back off and that how my ex was acting was horrible and that it needed to stop. She then proceeded to say something about how since he and I broke up I had already slept with 4 guys and that he told her "ew, no." about wanting to get back together with me. Like I had asked him to! So, then he said to say one word to let him know I 100% wanted him out of my life forever and I literally said "out". That was it. He then left me alone.

Since then, I haven't seen him. I've seen him around town before I graduated high school and moved to Texas to live with my husband's family while he was deployed, but not after that. I'm not going to lie. Even after moving, I never got over the feeling I had during that week. It was honestly traumatic. So traumatic that even now I'm scared of him.

From then I moved to Texas and got married and all that jazz. I got back to my home town just 6 months ago and am now working in the small town's Safeway where I know I will eventually see him or his family. I have been super nervous every day going in that I'd see him. I got tired of that so I decided to message him. I was straight up about how I feel and how I am tired of having been afraid for the last 4 1/2 years and that if he's going to be at that Safeway to let me know. The craziest thing, though, of that whole conversation was the fact he said he was sorry. He apologized. I don't know if anyone knows how crazy that felt to me. I didn't know I needed to hear that.

So, I thought that I had reached near closure finally. That is until the inevitable happened and I saw his dad. I panicked and ducked down behind the counter. Then I got mad at myself. Why was I hiding from his dad? He did nothing besides treat me with love and respect throughout the whole time I have known him. So, I stood up and helped him and made his drink and chatted. He then went on his way. I figure that if I'm that startled by someone I really like just because of their affiliation with my ex, then I can't account for how I'll feel when I see my ex - even if he warns me that he'll be there.

I won't say he was the worst person ever, but he was the worst person for me and I think I was for him too. For now, I'll leave it at that, mostly because I blocked out so much from that time that I can't remember more to share.

Thank you guys for reading.
If you have any stories like mine, I'd love to hear them. I'm sorry if you had to deal with something like this.

XOXO - Sarah

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Closure is a Funny Thing

Hello Lovelies.

Today is a bit of a different post than I've made before and I know that it's on the "wrong day". However, it's something that I need to talk about right at this second and I figure it wouldn't be a bad idea to talk about it on here.

For those that have known me for years, you know about Josh. If you haven't known me for years, he is my ex. Our relationship was a bit intense and it lasted from when I was just 15 to nearly 17. So, basically a year and a half. There was a lot of drama during the relationship and neither party was perfect. What I do have to say was the worst part of the whole thing, the part that set the tone for how I've seen that relationship when I look back at it and how I have treated relationships for the last 4 1/2 years, was the break up.

This was a particularly difficult and down right horrible time in my life. When we broke up, he got obsessive and aggressive as well as possessive and just plain mean. I got scared. Really scared. It traumatized me. It traumatized me so badly that even when I moved half-way across the country, whenever I saw a car that looked like his, I started to panic. Even the IDEA of seeing his family makes me ill from anxiety. That is, until just now.

I got tired of being anxious to go to my new job in a place in town because of the very thought of seeing him there, so I took initiative. See, I never got closure to the relationship because it was super high emotions from his harassment and verbal abuse, then I cut him off, then nothing else from him. It was one day craziness then the next nothing. I haven't even seen him since then.

But today, I messaged him. I finally got the balls to basically say "Hey, I am back in town and I'm tired of being so fucking scared of seeing you. If you're going to be in the store where I work, let me know because I can't handle seeing you without warning." then we talked and he apologized. Multiple times. He acknowledged everything and was respectful and remorseful. I can't tell you guys just how much that means to me. I feel like 4 1/2 years of anxiety and weight has been lifted.

I am finally free. I finally have closure. I finally have what I need to let go of the situation.

I have closure.

XOXO - Sarah

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Tea Talks: Wednesday 10/26/2016

Hello Lovelies!

I do apologize for missing Tea Talks on Sunday. I mean, it's not like I have let down a bunch of people but for sure I like to keep up with my writing schedule.

I am writing this before heading to work for my second day of training. It's 4:30am and let me tell you: the exhaustion headache is real. I don't feel exhausted (yet) but man my head hurts.

I am working at Starbucks in the Safeway in town and so far it's been a pretty good experience. I have seen only one person so far that I have bad history with... so that's good!!! I am hoping today goes well like yesterday did.

Anyways, I'm headed out. Much love!

XOXO - Sarah

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

My Style History (for the most part)

Hello Lovelies!

I was thinking about ways to kind of show you more about myself. I would totally say "tell you more about myself", but I'm going to be literally SHOWING you. So, yeah. If you're interested in looking through photos of my past styles, please do! I will be putting them down below. :) They're a bit out of order, but that's more laziness than bad memory to be honest. ;)

XOXO - Sarah