But this is gonna be super personal, I'm gonna bare alot of stuff out here, mainly because I dont feel I have enough people I can actually talk about this with, especially in a face-to-face environment and even then, I just have too much TO say that I would end up missing things out or passing over things or putting emphasis on aspects that dont warrant it. Also, well frankly like I've said before, this helps me, writing it out, laying myself out there in writing; its easier than talking about it, the emotions dont get in the way.
So to start off, simply put I have decided that I am going to emigrate to the US, move to New York and live the life I have always wanted....seriously. That is huge, I know, its crazy and takes so much effort and motivation but believe me this isn't a split-second decision and isn't something I have only decided on because of a "bad day".
No this idea has been rooted in my mind for years, hell maybe forever - and there are many reasons why, this post is gonna delve into these reasons and just let people, anyone that opens up this post and reads, lets them/you know why I am carrying out such a drastic move, and maybe some other things that have been weighing down on me for the last while in my life too.
One of the main reasons is that I dont feel like myself - I wish I could say I'm a fake, a fraud but honestly I just cant be that definitive, I cant make that claim because honestly I dont know if I am being unfaithful to myself and if I am, by how much, hell I dont even know how I am these days, everything seems to blur together, days go by and I dont know how I get from point A to point B most days. I feel like I am just existing and nothing much else.
My experiences in my day to day life right now, as of this date are somewhat stable in nature: most days I get up for work, I travel through, I slub through my shift of little-to-no responsibilities and go home, try and eat something and lie around before I workup and then try and sleep. This routine is fine and all, as a person I prefer a schedule, a list of actions to get through in-order during the day - but what happens when your main objective in the day is a dead-end, is such a negative environment where your boss is against you simply because of how you dress and talk, and doesn't take into account your dedication and loyalty to the company, your work ethic and motivation, that she doesn't take into account just how much fucking effort you put in, and how fucking good at my job you are. No matter the compliments, no matter the number of times OTHERS in the company give compliments, even those higher up, because I have an alternative look and the fact that I do my job and dont kiss ass I am held down, stopped from being given opportunities that I deserve and would nail, and in return I end up being given the jobs of a rookie, of a person that hasn't been at the company, in the damn retail sector for longer than a few weeks!!
My frustration goes wider than my work, but when you go to a job that a year ago was your dream job and everything you wanted to do, and still is, but now find yourself hating walking in the doors because you know you just cant get any further, if Im honest it kills me, it deflates me and pushes me away.
This has only became more known to me in the last few months since I've undertaken more hours, but its always been underlying, and I blame it for the time I spent job-hunting post-Graduation. I spent nearly 4 months searching for jobs, frantically looking for something and thanks to this it ended up triggering my depression back, but because my only focus was to find a new, second job I pushed it aside, I hid it and buried it down not to be looked at. What the result was, well I'll talk about that further down I'm sure.
But still on work, I should have just walked in the day after Graduation and told them I want to go 100%, let me work my fucking ass off! I wanted to, and I knew I could get the overtime, but even then I had been burned before with false promises that I suppose I knew I would get the hours but it would do very little to/for me apart from a money standpoint. Now lets go from here, I started searching around for something else to tact-on and found myself in these "jobs", these situations where I was over-qualified and had no business being there. I am not someone who is to work in a Call Center, not that theres anything wrong with that, but for me, I have no business being at one. I wanted the money, so I undersold myself to MYSELF and went for anything that would have me quickly, I got some places; I found myself in these rooms where I was surrounded by these sweaty, out of shape, loud people that are the exact opposite of me...instantly I felt out of place and unwanted. So I go through a few of these but then find a place where I figured I could maybe hack it, or atleast long enough to have some money. The Tesco Call Center, this is the place that broke me, broke me so much that I am still trying to fit the pieces of my life together. The hours were so horrendous, I was up at 8am and didn't get back home until midnight, any normal person would say "thanks but no thanks" to it, but me, thanks to depression and self-esteem problems I felt like I didn't deserve the luxury of quitting, almost that I deserved the misery. This led to the end of something even more important that I'll cover again later.
I left after a week, but the damage was done.
I went to H&M, I told them I wanted it all, I wanted the keys to the kingdom and to let me work my way up; I was told I could get this promotion, it was laid out for me, for me to apply and get. I was excited, I felt like I was going somewhere, I felt like all my effort, the overtime, the perseverance was to pay-off. I was finally getting what I deserved, maybe my boss finally acknowledged that I was worth it, maybe she was coming around; others were, the person who would have been my boss-type of person in that area of staff worked with me for a solid week, I guess it was soft-training, and I kicked its ass. I really did, I was doing a job that I had no formal training in and I was doing it justice, things were looking up.
But the application seemed to be getting drawn out, the whole process seemed to drag and I started feeling like I wasn't being taken seriously - I then went online and saw the position had been put up on the site as vacant, which meant they were done with internal applications. I walked in, tears inside, butterfly's the size of eagles and I was met with an "oh sorry, we need someone with experience and I just dont feel you have it".
I swallowed my pride, I told her I understood and went on my merry way; inside I was fuming and again I was deflated. Of course Im inexperienced in the role, thats why I would have been trained! The person before me didn't even have a quarter of my experience when she got put in for training, so why the fuck was I deemed as a rookie, as a dosser to just stay in my position of having to ambush customers and stand like a robot on tills?! Is she that petty that she would rather waste the time, money and effort in looking for someone to take this position which from a money and hours standpoint, kinda sucks. I was back to square one.
It was here that I knew I had no future in this store, not the company or the fashion retail sector, but THAT store. No matter what, Im not going anywhere soon, and being in such an environment, being in a job that physically and emotionally hurts you, I just couldn't do it anymore. I need out, I need something new. This Christmas season I will grab as much overtime as possible, I will build up my money and as soon as I can, Im handing in my notice and transferring to another store in NY.
I've just got to grind my teeth and work through it.
Another thing, is the people here - my work isn't my biggest frustration living here, infact its a dull one if Im totally honest, what is the biggest part of why I am leaving is the people, my "loving" family, I need away from it all.
I have no place here, I dont fit in at all; over the last few years I have lost so many people, people that I was so close to, and the reason for these loses are never revealed. Now I understand life drifts people apart, I get that and understand, but to go from being talkative to a person on a daily basis to not even acknowledging them a week later, its insane. This has been a problem for years, since I was 13/14, so a decade, back then I had a large friend group, we were all close, all growing up together and it was great. What happened one morning changed my life forever, I hope its something I will one day be able to not think about and have its effects wear off, but Im not sure. One morning I go to our usual meeting spot and nothing, and that word, nothing, explains the next year. I was in a world of nothing, my so called friends had rejected me, had cast me aside for no reason whatsoever, no reason has ever been given. Then one random afternoon they all came back to me like nothing had happened, like those nights I went home and broke down were fictional, like the feeling of betrayal in my gut was just a figment of my imagination. From that day, I haven't been able to trust anyone, how could I?! Whats to say this wouldn't happen again, isn't it easier to just push everyone away than to worry about having that feeling again?
This all led me to become a husk of my former self, I stayed in the background now in an effort to not rub anyone the wrong way; gone was the fun-loving kid that would throw out jokes, be the "funny one", gone was the kid that loved the outdoors, fuck gone was the kid that did anything!
I spent the next 5 years indoors, I stayed out of everyone's way and pretty much ended up being the punching-bag to my friend group, I hated every second of it, but as long as I didn't say anything I had people I could atleast stand around with, and as a 15 year old kid, that was the most important thing to me.
Just writing this out is making me see and understand how fucking ridiculous that decision was and to see how badly its effected me still to this day is stupid, why do I let this still ruin my day-to-day relationships?!
Now? Like I said above, I feel like I have lost 90% of the people I held dear to me once, I feel like I have no one here for me, apart from maybe a handful, and even the majority of this small handful just isn't close enough to spew these things to, so I'm left going through the motions when around these people. I do have people that are there for me, that I break through and do trust with all I have, people that I can let this stuff out to, for them I am so grateful and couldn't ask for better people to have around me.
It wasn't only these situations with friends that have made me as a person feel insecure and out of place here, my family have gradually become a cancer to my life, and I know, not everyone's family is nice and all that - this isn't me being all "woe is me", but I just feel for me, the way my family is, just proves that I have no support here in any form and has added to my frustrations here.
Im not going to go into too much detail but to be blunt, my mother is an alcoholic and has been for years, and yes yes again this isn't a huge thing, BUT the person she is when she's drunk, which is rapidly increasing each and every day, is just a cold callous shell of a person. She makes me feel bad for my work, she tries to push in my face as much as possible that my contracted hours to work a week is only 8, she likes to make herself superior to me in every junction. When I go through spats of depression, to her its a big joke and me overreacting, because "what do I have to be so depressed about?!". And the kicker, two nights ago I was sitting down and she came into my face, drunk and reeking of drink of course, telling me how much of a horrible person I was for leaving and in-turn leaving my Gran, how when I move to New York I am gonna end up on the slums, and fine this didn't effect me, but the fact that she said it, the fact that my own mother said this to me, I dont know, its things like that (that are happening more and more as she drowns herself even further into alcoholism) that just amaze me and make me hate my surroundings here even more.
I dont want to dwell on my family matters too much because I dont think this is the proper forum to air these feelings, frankly I dont know if there really is one, but I feel its enough to get the point across.
So away from family, away from friends, hell away from work, why move so far away?! Why not move to Glasgow or London, Aberdeen or hell even just 20 minutes down the road back to Dundee?
Its really really easy, and theres a few reasons; I've always wanted to go there, since I was a kid I always wanted to go and live in New York, now at the tender age of 23 I feel its time, I have work experience to get me over there, I have my degree, why the hell not?!
Another reason, well hey, its about a girl - the last 3 years I have had the amazing pleasure of getting to know the incredible woman Reva, the last year we were in a relationship, through all the hardships I have went through in the last year, it was the one thing I could always count on, she was the one thing I could always count on. No matter what, I had her love, no matter what I always had a reason to smile.
But a week and a half ago things changed, we broke up, and even still I dont think I have fully processed it, but then again I think I had always been prepared. The distance was a huge issue, my money-situation was another and prevented me from being over there sooner to be with her, but the biggest problem was something I mentioned before; it was my trouble opening up and coming out of my shell. I do think that there were more reasons, especially as we've talked more since, both our depression's are building up again, and we're both in a pivotal point in our lives where we're setting ourselves up for the future - its hard to do this with a partner on the other side of the world, its hard to deal with the depression when the person that is supposed to be by your side can only be present on a screen. We're both in similar surroundings too, we dont have support where we currently live, we're both a little fucked up and need to find our own paths back to normality before we can continue on our shared one. And thats the thing, we both have the desire to move to NY, we both are moving to NY, and we both believe that we'll continue this avenue of our relationship at this later point. We didn't break-up because we weren't good together, or because one of us was a bastard, or because we hated each other. We still care about each other, we are still attracted to each other and we still love each other; I think we just need a break to be able to balance ourselves out and to put all of our focus on ourselves for a bit.
Im not going to lie, it still hurts, I still feel empty inside, and I still blame myself for all that happened, but I think this happening was inevitable, if not now it would have been during/after our planned NY trip, so Im trying really hard not to dwell too much on it and stay focused on the future of us, and the current stage we're at where we're still pretty much in the same place we were, only we cant show the affection.
The hardest part is easily the communication, knowing I had someone I could talk to about anything at anytime was something I treasured, not waking up to a message from her or just getting a short notice telling me how good the gig she went to was, these little things were the things that made me smile the most. Knowing she was smiling was my drug, and was what made me sleep better and wake-up easier - even now as corny as it sounds, she is the first and last thing that is on my mind, all day thoughts of her smile race through my head, thoughts of what she's doing, they plague me, but by God I dont want them to leave me. No matter what, I will always love her, and Im already counting the days till I can actually hold her, take her on dates and even just see her in person - this is a big reason why I need to leave now.
Now this isn't me trying to jump the gun too much or seem like all I care about is getting back to a romantic place between us; no this is something that I will look at later on in time, and will cross that path when it comes. For now, all I know, all I want is for our friendship, our bond to continue on and to just continue to grow and grow - the last year was never about her being my girlfriend, it was never about scoring points or doing things because I felt I had to. To me, I did all I did, I was by her side for an illness she is still suffering from, I listened to her, I sent care-packages, I did all of that not because of a label but simply because I wanted to, because I cared so so much for her, and that wont be changing ever. She's one of the few that I feel comfortable with talking about serious things with, I wasn't before because of internal problems with ME (not wanting to scare her, not wanting to hurt her, not wanting to worry her; I was just trying to be caring and considerate of her feelings and the situation she was in, I thought I was doing the right thing I really did) but now I am ready to let her in, and like I said, to grow our bond. Reva is a very important part of my life, and I am so thankful every day that we met 3 years ago.
I want to shed the shit that has kept me down too long and I want to let it go and live: I wanna go to the clubs, go to a different gig every night, I want to walk the streets of Brooklyn, catch the Subway, eat the food, walk Central Park, climb the buildings, all of that! I want this life, I want these people and I just need it all in my present and future!
I've been living my life not knowing who I am, not being sure of what happiness is because honestly, something thats gone through my head so much over the last 10 years has been how I cant remember the last time I was consistently happy, Im talking 100% happy for longer than a few hours, and even then I dont think I've been 100% happy at those times anyway!
For so long I've been living this life where the only things that brought me any form of joy was commercial materials, buying clothes, spending a fortune on any t-shirt I liked because it always meant I had something to look forward to, I had a reason to be excited for that one package to come through the letterbox. I was attempting to buy my happiness, and the sad reality is that it worked for so long, until Reva - I had her to look forward to.
I feel out of place in this world too, I dont want to get too hipster and all, but living in this world thats controlled by how many "friends" you have on Facebook, or how many "likes" you get or "retweets" or "hearts" or whatever else, as someone that craves the contact of humans, that relishes in it and enjoys it above all else, I find myself adrift in a sea of pointless attempts of validation, shitty spammings of selfies and focus being drawn on aspects of life that are meaningless in all realistic-purposes. I hate that I am part of this world and society where a child at the age of 4 would rather play on a new state-of-the-art phone than play with toys and friends. Instead of adventuring outside, making friends, bonding, 7 year old boys would rather play on their Dad's tablet; I just feel this world has become a very scary place, a place where whats important just isn't, having every conversation include the words "messaged" and "did you see what she posted last night" is like nails on a chalkboard for me. And Im no better, I do the same thing, I open Facebook and I leave it open so I can message the few people I care about, but believe me I hate doing it. Its a toxic system that is sucking away real interaction - now it has its uses, for example being able to contact people who you just cant interact with in a face-to-face environment, but to see the people that use it as a way to try and showcase how AMAZING their life is; telling me what they've been watching for the last 3 weeks, or what they have been eating, or what they did last night and "how it was the greatest night ever" is just something I dont care to see plastered on a website that I use for few minimal tasks. These people who are so void of people around them that they have to spout these insipid posts every few hours just shows how desperate they are, shows how they have become so reliant on these areas of life that they'd rather tell everyone about it via writing it on a website with a smattering of smiley faces instead of having a real conversation with them. Its just another part of life that I need away from, its a rampant problem with many I know or have known and been around and had to be subjected to through my University time; I had to smile and grin through it.
**tangent over**
I know its a drastic move, I know its a crazy decision but I have to make it, I have to move over there and I have to do it for myself and my future. I cant stay here, harmed by the past, the baggage, I cant do it anymore. I cant stay living here with this misery filling my body, being so close to tears every second, physically feeling myself holding on to my sanity and stopping myself from breaking. Its a struggle being around these people, this place and my time doing it is up.
Every day I learn a little more about how to get over there, every day i work a little more to get just a little more money, this all builds up and my goal to get over there for my birthday and celebrate it with others over there is on track and easily obtained. I have this image in my head, how the day will pan out, and aslong as I keep this picture in my head, as long as I keep that ingrained inside and I strive for it - I dont see what can go wrong, with a positive mindset and a positive outlook,
Sean
I spent the next 5 years indoors, I stayed out of everyone's way and pretty much ended up being the punching-bag to my friend group, I hated every second of it, but as long as I didn't say anything I had people I could atleast stand around with, and as a 15 year old kid, that was the most important thing to me.
Just writing this out is making me see and understand how fucking ridiculous that decision was and to see how badly its effected me still to this day is stupid, why do I let this still ruin my day-to-day relationships?!
Now? Like I said above, I feel like I have lost 90% of the people I held dear to me once, I feel like I have no one here for me, apart from maybe a handful, and even the majority of this small handful just isn't close enough to spew these things to, so I'm left going through the motions when around these people. I do have people that are there for me, that I break through and do trust with all I have, people that I can let this stuff out to, for them I am so grateful and couldn't ask for better people to have around me.
It wasn't only these situations with friends that have made me as a person feel insecure and out of place here, my family have gradually become a cancer to my life, and I know, not everyone's family is nice and all that - this isn't me being all "woe is me", but I just feel for me, the way my family is, just proves that I have no support here in any form and has added to my frustrations here.
Im not going to go into too much detail but to be blunt, my mother is an alcoholic and has been for years, and yes yes again this isn't a huge thing, BUT the person she is when she's drunk, which is rapidly increasing each and every day, is just a cold callous shell of a person. She makes me feel bad for my work, she tries to push in my face as much as possible that my contracted hours to work a week is only 8, she likes to make herself superior to me in every junction. When I go through spats of depression, to her its a big joke and me overreacting, because "what do I have to be so depressed about?!". And the kicker, two nights ago I was sitting down and she came into my face, drunk and reeking of drink of course, telling me how much of a horrible person I was for leaving and in-turn leaving my Gran, how when I move to New York I am gonna end up on the slums, and fine this didn't effect me, but the fact that she said it, the fact that my own mother said this to me, I dont know, its things like that (that are happening more and more as she drowns herself even further into alcoholism) that just amaze me and make me hate my surroundings here even more.
I dont want to dwell on my family matters too much because I dont think this is the proper forum to air these feelings, frankly I dont know if there really is one, but I feel its enough to get the point across.
So away from family, away from friends, hell away from work, why move so far away?! Why not move to Glasgow or London, Aberdeen or hell even just 20 minutes down the road back to Dundee?
Its really really easy, and theres a few reasons; I've always wanted to go there, since I was a kid I always wanted to go and live in New York, now at the tender age of 23 I feel its time, I have work experience to get me over there, I have my degree, why the hell not?!
Another reason, well hey, its about a girl - the last 3 years I have had the amazing pleasure of getting to know the incredible woman Reva, the last year we were in a relationship, through all the hardships I have went through in the last year, it was the one thing I could always count on, she was the one thing I could always count on. No matter what, I had her love, no matter what I always had a reason to smile.
But a week and a half ago things changed, we broke up, and even still I dont think I have fully processed it, but then again I think I had always been prepared. The distance was a huge issue, my money-situation was another and prevented me from being over there sooner to be with her, but the biggest problem was something I mentioned before; it was my trouble opening up and coming out of my shell. I do think that there were more reasons, especially as we've talked more since, both our depression's are building up again, and we're both in a pivotal point in our lives where we're setting ourselves up for the future - its hard to do this with a partner on the other side of the world, its hard to deal with the depression when the person that is supposed to be by your side can only be present on a screen. We're both in similar surroundings too, we dont have support where we currently live, we're both a little fucked up and need to find our own paths back to normality before we can continue on our shared one. And thats the thing, we both have the desire to move to NY, we both are moving to NY, and we both believe that we'll continue this avenue of our relationship at this later point. We didn't break-up because we weren't good together, or because one of us was a bastard, or because we hated each other. We still care about each other, we are still attracted to each other and we still love each other; I think we just need a break to be able to balance ourselves out and to put all of our focus on ourselves for a bit.
Im not going to lie, it still hurts, I still feel empty inside, and I still blame myself for all that happened, but I think this happening was inevitable, if not now it would have been during/after our planned NY trip, so Im trying really hard not to dwell too much on it and stay focused on the future of us, and the current stage we're at where we're still pretty much in the same place we were, only we cant show the affection.
The hardest part is easily the communication, knowing I had someone I could talk to about anything at anytime was something I treasured, not waking up to a message from her or just getting a short notice telling me how good the gig she went to was, these little things were the things that made me smile the most. Knowing she was smiling was my drug, and was what made me sleep better and wake-up easier - even now as corny as it sounds, she is the first and last thing that is on my mind, all day thoughts of her smile race through my head, thoughts of what she's doing, they plague me, but by God I dont want them to leave me. No matter what, I will always love her, and Im already counting the days till I can actually hold her, take her on dates and even just see her in person - this is a big reason why I need to leave now.
Now this isn't me trying to jump the gun too much or seem like all I care about is getting back to a romantic place between us; no this is something that I will look at later on in time, and will cross that path when it comes. For now, all I know, all I want is for our friendship, our bond to continue on and to just continue to grow and grow - the last year was never about her being my girlfriend, it was never about scoring points or doing things because I felt I had to. To me, I did all I did, I was by her side for an illness she is still suffering from, I listened to her, I sent care-packages, I did all of that not because of a label but simply because I wanted to, because I cared so so much for her, and that wont be changing ever. She's one of the few that I feel comfortable with talking about serious things with, I wasn't before because of internal problems with ME (not wanting to scare her, not wanting to hurt her, not wanting to worry her; I was just trying to be caring and considerate of her feelings and the situation she was in, I thought I was doing the right thing I really did) but now I am ready to let her in, and like I said, to grow our bond. Reva is a very important part of my life, and I am so thankful every day that we met 3 years ago.
I want to shed the shit that has kept me down too long and I want to let it go and live: I wanna go to the clubs, go to a different gig every night, I want to walk the streets of Brooklyn, catch the Subway, eat the food, walk Central Park, climb the buildings, all of that! I want this life, I want these people and I just need it all in my present and future!
I've been living my life not knowing who I am, not being sure of what happiness is because honestly, something thats gone through my head so much over the last 10 years has been how I cant remember the last time I was consistently happy, Im talking 100% happy for longer than a few hours, and even then I dont think I've been 100% happy at those times anyway!
For so long I've been living this life where the only things that brought me any form of joy was commercial materials, buying clothes, spending a fortune on any t-shirt I liked because it always meant I had something to look forward to, I had a reason to be excited for that one package to come through the letterbox. I was attempting to buy my happiness, and the sad reality is that it worked for so long, until Reva - I had her to look forward to.
I feel out of place in this world too, I dont want to get too hipster and all, but living in this world thats controlled by how many "friends" you have on Facebook, or how many "likes" you get or "retweets" or "hearts" or whatever else, as someone that craves the contact of humans, that relishes in it and enjoys it above all else, I find myself adrift in a sea of pointless attempts of validation, shitty spammings of selfies and focus being drawn on aspects of life that are meaningless in all realistic-purposes. I hate that I am part of this world and society where a child at the age of 4 would rather play on a new state-of-the-art phone than play with toys and friends. Instead of adventuring outside, making friends, bonding, 7 year old boys would rather play on their Dad's tablet; I just feel this world has become a very scary place, a place where whats important just isn't, having every conversation include the words "messaged" and "did you see what she posted last night" is like nails on a chalkboard for me. And Im no better, I do the same thing, I open Facebook and I leave it open so I can message the few people I care about, but believe me I hate doing it. Its a toxic system that is sucking away real interaction - now it has its uses, for example being able to contact people who you just cant interact with in a face-to-face environment, but to see the people that use it as a way to try and showcase how AMAZING their life is; telling me what they've been watching for the last 3 weeks, or what they have been eating, or what they did last night and "how it was the greatest night ever" is just something I dont care to see plastered on a website that I use for few minimal tasks. These people who are so void of people around them that they have to spout these insipid posts every few hours just shows how desperate they are, shows how they have become so reliant on these areas of life that they'd rather tell everyone about it via writing it on a website with a smattering of smiley faces instead of having a real conversation with them. Its just another part of life that I need away from, its a rampant problem with many I know or have known and been around and had to be subjected to through my University time; I had to smile and grin through it.
**tangent over**
I know its a drastic move, I know its a crazy decision but I have to make it, I have to move over there and I have to do it for myself and my future. I cant stay here, harmed by the past, the baggage, I cant do it anymore. I cant stay living here with this misery filling my body, being so close to tears every second, physically feeling myself holding on to my sanity and stopping myself from breaking. Its a struggle being around these people, this place and my time doing it is up.
Every day I learn a little more about how to get over there, every day i work a little more to get just a little more money, this all builds up and my goal to get over there for my birthday and celebrate it with others over there is on track and easily obtained. I have this image in my head, how the day will pan out, and aslong as I keep this picture in my head, as long as I keep that ingrained inside and I strive for it - I dont see what can go wrong, with a positive mindset and a positive outlook,
Sean