#im being extremely open and candid here but please don't feel obligated to read this

[scary-monsters]

some thoughts on parental loss, isolation, self-sabotage, etc etc. not a necessary read but. just where my head has been lately.

march and april are very difficult months for me, every single year. my birthday approaching always manages to send me into a cycle of nauseating anxiety, and april is the anniversary of my dad's passing.

i miss my dad more than i have in years, and i'm not entirely sure where that's coming from. he passed away suddenly in his sleep, without any warning, back in 2011, just weeks before my high school graduation. i remember the morning of his death more than i remember than my grad ceremony. it's a common thing to say but: i am my father's daughter. i look in the mirror and i see him looking back at me, and the older i get the more clear it is.

i see the good things: someone who values laughter and laughs often, someone who shows love for people through actions, someone who loves music, someone with a creative spirit who constantly yearns to make things, someone who loves animals, someone who believes strongly in individualism

but i see the bad things too: someone who isolates themselves to an unhealthy degree, someone who feels this inherent fear over connecting with people, someone who doesn't ask for help even when it's critical, someone who struggles with emotion regulation, someone who harbors a lot of resentment despite trying not to, someone who aches for the numbness that comes with alcohol

he was an alcoholic, and i don't feel bad saying that because he would've openly admitted that to anyone who asked. he said it to me many times during our nightly "bonding" sessions during the last couple years of his life, which was essentially both of us on our own computers doing our own thing while he drank and drank and drank and told me to be quiet about it, keep it secret, and proceeded to say horrible things about my mom and me and my siblings. but i was expected to sit there and listen. i was raised to be his "best friend", i wasn't his daughter. and i have worked very hard to forgive him for that, but it still stings sometimes.

some days i want nothing more than to yell at him, now that i'm older and i have a voice of my own and i understand how unfair his treatment of me was. other days i want nothing more than to cry in his arms because despite being scarcely physically affectionate, my dad gave some of the best hugs i've ever felt in my life. i will never forget the two times i can recall him hugging me, those memories come back to me when i'm at my lowest, and i replay his voice saying "i'm proud of you" over and over again in my head.

i see more of him in my personality every single day, and it scares me. i remember how openly he talked about wanting to die, how he told me exactly what songs he wanted played at his funeral just months before he suddenly passed. it was as if he knew it was going to happen, but he was always at peace with it. unfortunately i see those thoughts and feelings in me lately. i have written letters, countless times. i know exactly what song i would want played at a funeral, though admittedly i wouldn't really want one in the first place. i am at peace with the idea of not waking up one day. but that scares me.

ever since the holidays last year, i've been pulling back more and more from everyone around me. and i don't know if people notice, i try not to think about it because it sends me down a thought spiral that only makes me feel even worse. truly? i don't think people would notice that much if i died, it's not as if i'm very present in people's lives as it is. i simply don't have the energy to be. i have little faith in my ability as a friend. i look at everyone around me, at the friendships they've cultivated, at the bonds they have, and i wonder how it is that people can so easily find connection with others. my entire life it's felt like a battle. on the rare occasions that i do feel like a part of something, it fades after a few months and i feel like i'm back at square one, like i have to restart. that cycle has followed me my entire life.

and that's sort of where i am right now. i don't feel at home anywhere. i don't feel important. if i were to look at myself from someone else's point of view, i imagine that i'm the person who's special when it's convenient. someone who exists to build up other people, to help them move forward in life. and that's not a bad thing, in fact i love having a positive impact on people or helping them when i can, but when i've been used up and i'm not useful or interesting anymore, i feel like i'm often tossed to the side. i have always felt replaceable. i've been told i'm lackluster, that my personality is nothing special, that i'm one-note, that i offer nothing. and i am starting to latch on to those words more and more every day.

but back to my dad: something he frequently told me was that i "don't need people" and that "they will just use you and hurt you" and i fully believed that for most of my life. it wasn't until i was in my early 20s that i started to realize how lonely life was, so i tried making friends. but my toxic traits came to bite me in the ass, every single time. whether that was the period of time where i was an undiagnosed bipolar neck-deep in an explosive manic phase, or frequent phases where i simply backed away from everyone out of self-preservation, until i was ultimately forgotten. i fear i'm reaching that point again, and it's so frustrating because i have done so much internal work. for years. and it's like those words keep coming back. people will hurt me. maybe i've always been meant to be alone. i don't like that reality, but again: the older i get, the more i feel myself becoming a loner who craves connection but fears it so deeply that it doesn't seem worth it anymore.

in an ideal world, i would be a faceless artist who creates things for herself and anyone else who likes it. someone who doesn't necessarily need anyone, doesn't desire connection, is satisfied with being by herself all the time. but the truth is that's not what i am. i crave connection so much it makes me sick. but i don't know how to get it. i don't know how to feel secure in any of my relationships with anyone. maybe i'm not capable of it. i'm one of the weakest people i know in terms of emotions, i have to be handled so delicately and it feels so unfair to expect that sort of delicacy and care from anyone. i never saw it growing up, i was surrounded by silent rage that festered until emotional blowups happened, and i was expected to fix things, i was expected to mend those relationships. i was a child. and i still feel like a child. i still feel like that girl that's constantly on high alert waiting to take care of other people so i'll feel at least some semblance of worth. all while i fight to ignore my own wants and needs. i am just so tired of feeling so worthless. i want someone to take care of me for once. and i'm afraid that's never going to happen, that maybe my dad was right all along.