Fixing Myself

“Grow up”, he said. “Take responsibility”. Those words lingered in my head as I cried myself to sleep one night...

“If you love someone, set him free.”

I came to ponder on the saying. It doesn’t mean saying ‘good-bye’ or parting from your love one. It simply means giving your partner a ‘little space’. By ‘little space’, those words sound intimidating...it is scary to hear those combinations of words for crying-out-loud! It’s like an introduction for breaking up with someone. But no because, in another sense, I believe it means allowing your partner to think for himself without you dictating what he might do in certain situations (influence perchance). The consequences you (both) just have to face after. But allow your partner to make the decision in his own free will. Give him the chance to prove himself. Let him take responsibility for his own actions. Let him! Because he still has to learn...he has to grow, sometimes on his own...even though it’s the hard way. Though you are united in one love, you still think independently. You interpret things in different ways. You’re still two beings. So let him. If you love someone, don’t hold him by the neck. If he loves you enough he is yours and you just have to trust him to make the right decision for the sake of you both.

But what about intoxication...what if he’s not sober?

“I want to be there for you (when you get drunk) so I can take care of you. I want to protect you because I wouldn’t know what to do if something (bad) happened to you”.

You love him that much that you want to be overly protective of him and of your relationship. But no matter how much you love him and no matter how much your happiness depends on him, as if the world will crumble if you lose him, you don’t own him. And he can still hurt you by what he says or do, consciously or unconsciously. What’s frustrating the most is that if you make a mistake, 1 out of 10, the nine good and responsible decisions you’ve made wouldn’t matter because of that one mistake. One mistake! One mistake and it’s all over. All hopes and dreams and the trust shatters into pieces like a broken glass. No matter how much you try to put the pieces back together, you can never bring it back. Love is just not enough anymore.

“You have a choice. Bad things or temptations can be avoided”.

It hurts. It hurts to say that I didn’t allow you to protect me the way you wanted to. It hurts to say that I hurt you badly. It hurts to realize that I made some awful decisions and allowed things to happen that I shouldn’t have. It hurts to say that I didn’t do anything to vindicate myself...or you...or us. It hurts me so that I kept it from you. The guilt I just couldn’t bear.

I had to take a chance and come out clean because I wouldn’t want to continue lying to you...to myself. I’m bad and so ashamed of what I did. But I have to face this. I have to face you...your anger, your hurt and the consequences. I have to risk it because it’s the only way I can be free. I have to lay my cards down and show you all the beauty and ugliness in me. I have to know if you are willing to accept all that. If you can still accept me...

And you did. You do accept me...everything that I am. And I let out a heavy sigh of relief. As if this big cross I carry around became half the load. It’s because you carried the other half. And what’s great about it is that you are giving me the chance to recuperate from this bug I have. You’re allowing me to fix myself, and not you, fixing me. You’re giving me my chance, my opportunity, my freedom to show you what I’m made of...to show you how responsible I’ve become...for you, for me, for us. I just have to prove it. Show it. Let you feel it. These I vowed to myself.

“What do you want me to do?”, I asked you.

In return, you asked of me, “Because I am hurt, allow me to heal from the pain. I love you, and that will never change. I will not tell you what to do but please understand what I’m going through. Love me the way you love me and because you love me. That is all”.