An Open Letter

It’s official! On 9/20 E became my girlfriend. She’s right now getting ready for bed, and I’ve been somewhat spiraling. I know I’m spiraling and it’s rough but damn. For the first time ever I think I may not be the wealthiest one, and it’s by a far shot. She talks about how she wanted to go to an exclusive 8 course meal for her birthday, and how her family would also pay for me. And how her family would happily treat me and pay for me, even talking about a trip to Hawaii that her brother’s girlfriend has been joining them for the last 7 or so years. I realized I almost feel nauseous at the thought. Let alone a fancy meal, how am I supposed to just accept gifts like that? I don’t owe anyone anything, and I always pay more than I owe. How could I possibly be in debt to someone like that? And then I started to feel it.

I hope that I’m enough, I worry that I can’t live up to these standards that she has never said, and even gone on the record disagreeing with. But my fear is how many things are done out of consolation? It’s funny because I use her own script against her, all without her knowing. She talks about how I’m too good for her, and how she doesn’t understand what she sees in me. And how even when I know that I have all the things she said she feels bad about, I then feel like shit. Like I just worry that I’m not enough to love, and that it’s not enough to make up for the short parts of who I am. I worry about how depressed I get, and how it’s not her fault at all and even the healthiest way I know to handle it, of taking space, would still put a burden on her. She started to ask “how am I feeling” and I acted like I didn’t hear her. It felt like a lie, and so the next time she asked again I told her “don’t worry about it”. I just don’t want her to feel like she can see the burden on me. And so I just sit here crushed by my own stone, and I refuse to ask for help because I fear being too much. I’m nt afraid of the help itself, I’m more afraid of the being seen as too much. And that thought terrifies me. Like I’d love to talk about it but not when it feels like this is a every day thing, and then it’s something that I can deal with and I feel sorry that she has to deal with me enough as is. And I know that I’m spiraling here, but hats all I really know how to do. She talks about birthday dinners and fancy things, while I mention how my parents forgot my birthday. I almost started crying remembering the small fist-full of birthdates that I had. I worry that I am too much, and that is all that I can be. THat’s what my fear is. And so I sit kinda quietly here and hope that I’m not too difficult to be around. Because then I want to hide. I was so anxious in the shower afterwards because I had that same crash which I guess doesn’t come from sex, but rather just the feeling of being alone while next to someone. Not because they don’t want you there, but because you’re afraid to be there. Everything looks like a red flag when you grew up in a burning house. I can’t stress how much I want to be enough, which I know is stupid. She literally tells me how she has the same issue, and how she is afraid that she’s not enough for me. And the funny thing is I get it, because it’s not like it’s her money, and if we compare each other directly I get why she would be intimidated or insecure about that. But then when I compare myself to the life that she was given, I feel like I can’t match up, and it’s one of those asymmetrical things where we can both be right and also wrong at the same time. I fear the fact that I feel different from her. I feel different in such a fundamental way that I am scared that she can never understand me and I can never be like what she thinks of me. How can she understand what it’s like to be so low and have to fight for every happy experience. She said she’s a pretty generally happy person, and then I realize that there are so many different levels to the things I work hard for. I think I’m successful until she tells me about the lifestyle she casually is used to. It’s such a weird thing to be on both sides of the same issue, it’s such a genuine thing to both think it’s silly about how “hey look you have so much of a good thing, and that’s your issue! Just enjoy it!” But also feeling the same dread and the feeling of expectation back on something you can’t deliver. And I get scared and sad because I think I can give reassurance in a way that she can’t. I have the ability to say what needs to be heard in a way that she somewhat lacks, and so I end up feeling worried because she says what’s to me the wrong thing. And then I wonder how I can even be enough. Falling upwards, and hitting the ceiling hard.

I titled the post this because I wanted to believe in the fact that I could be enough. This thought has such sharp teeth, and the potential to shred me, and I want to be able to put my guard down enough to listen to the animal’s promises. I can be courageous, or at least that’s what I tell myself. I want to trust in something with teeth.