Saturday, December 29, 2007

sob story...possibly the most pathetic i will ever let myself sound

Back to Charleston tomorrow. There is something about that place that I absolutely hate right now, and I think I may have finally put my finger on what it is: I have spent a disproportionate amount of my time in Charleston trying to get over a person that I dated for 1 month. Maybe slightly longer.

When I say get over, I don't mean "I'm so in love with him, I can't get over him." When I say get over, I mean trying to extinguish my hatred for him over the way he made me doubt myself and my worth, and the way he has made me project that hatred on to every guy that I have met since then. It seems so ridiculous, but when Allan blew me off (I used to say 'when Allan and I stopped seeing each other' but that feels like such a lie), it was possibly the worst time in my entire life to be broken up with. I had just moved to a new town. I had just started a new job. And my sister had just moved back home for the summer, leaving me with an empty house. So basically I was left all alone with my wounded ego and bruised heart, in a town where I possessed only the most superficial of friendships.

I'm not saying that I had no one to turn to. I talked to Kelly about it several times (hell, we just talked about it 30 minutes ago at her kitchen table), but for some reason 'talking things out' has never really done that much for me. As a matter of fact, I have as little tolerance for self pity in myself as I do in other people. I even gave a therapist a shot, so that at least I could relax in the knowledge that it was her job to listen to people bitch and moan about their personal problems all day. She was possibly the worst thing I could have done--feeding me lines of bullshit about how his feelings for me may have been so strong that he was afraid to take things further. I mean come ON--what fucking delusional You Go Girl School of Psychiatry did this woman attend anyway?

Anyway, the good news is that I noticed in early November that I had finally begun to feel as happy as I did when I first moved to Charleston. He still creeps into my head sometimes, but it is never out of context anymore--it almost always has something to do with a situation in which I find myself or a person that we both know. And the rage had subsided for the most part. Which is always good, because being angry is exhausting--even more so than being sad (although anger allows one to be much more functional, I've noticed).

So now that I've gotten over it for the most part, I am seeking the ultimate closure. I started thinking about what the ultimate closure could be. There are several options:
  1. Get into great shape and look super hot so that he knows what he's missing, etc etc. However, this option is supremely stupid, because let's face it--unless you lose 100 pounds and get a face transplant, not much will be different to an outsider, just to you. However, if it boosts your self-esteem, go for it, just don't expect some dude who broke up with you to give a crap.
  2. Become rich and famous for something cool and smirk when he comes over to ask for your autograph. Let's face it, this does not happen to many people.
  3. Get "revenge". Do bitchy things to him and his friends and talk about him behind his back. This is the most pathetic route that can be taken. Any woman that resorts to this kind of behavior should be immediately thrust into a time machine and transported back to the 7th grade, because nothing else can excuse taking this route. It is also demeaning to women to act this way, because it gives guys the ability to use labels such as "that crazy bitch" and "that hysterical woman".
  4. Become friends with him. Get him to trust you on a personal and platonic level. And then ask him what the fuck happened. This is the method that I plan to use. Plus I know from previous experience that I'm generally cool enough that guys who have wronged me usually end up regreting it in one way or another. This is the ultimate form of closure, because you will be idealized in their minds--it's like it's not even you that they remember. It's the best version of you. The ambassador of you. The greatest hits of you.

This is the most vulnerable thing I have ever thought out loud, much less written. I feel like I should be mailing it into PostSecret or something. But there it is.

1 comment:

kelly said...

i completely respect and admire that you're dealing with it in the most realistic way. i think that feeding ourselves comforting wishful thinking like 'he still likes me' etc is definitely a bandage, but so temporary.

i feel that once you start trying to convince yourself otherwise, not fessing up and saying 'i am really hurt' or whatever, you start believing these feelings that you've projected on the guy. and then that leads to sympathizing with him and second guessing your behavior, when all along you should just cut all the bullshit and just call it what it is.

does that make sense? it does in my head at least. even though your option 4 is the most rational, i'd like to burn his g/fs cat alive or something