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Share your positive outcomes...
| Mon, 05-30-2005 - 11:08am |
I love to here personal success stories.
I would like to here your stories of something you had to overcome, how you did it and how you feel about it now.
It can be about anything and everything, health, work, a move, school etc.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend.
I would like to here your stories of something you had to overcome, how you did it and how you feel about it now.
It can be about anything and everything, health, work, a move, school etc.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend.
Hugs,
Laurie
co-cl of Lesbian Life Message Board
Email- didoangst@comcast.net
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-bhlesbianlif/
http://homepage.mac.com/lauriedav/PhotoAlbum1.html
Laurie
co-cl of Lesbian Life Message Board
Email- didoangst@comcast.net
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-bhlesbianlif/
http://homepage.mac.com/lauriedav/PhotoAlbum1.html

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I too am proud of all the women here. More so now than ever. Just knowing their inner strength and will to survive such tradgedies.
Thank you and all who post here.
Love and,
Laurie
co-cl of Lesbian Life Message Board
Email- didoangst@comcast.net
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-bhlesbianlif/
http://homepage.mac.com/lauriedav/PhotoAlbum1.html
After reading so many personal and touching stories by the wonderful ladies on this board, I feel like I can share mine too. I feel like my whole life has been filled with overcoming/surviving hard times, and every day I take one step closer to reaching that point of happiness and inner peace that I have always dreamed about. I grew up with an alcoholic father, who my mother later divorced, but who still stuck around just enough to make my younger years painful. He was a drug addict and exposed to me to things that no child should be exposed to. He also molested me throughout my teenage years. I grew up with virtually no self esteem. I hated myself and came very close to suicide during my teenage years. No one knew what I endured. I never told a soul. I just held it in and believed I was a piece of trash that deserved everything I got. By the time I finished high school, I had been raped, and physically & emotionally abused by numerous young men. Again, I never told a soul. Again, I was suicidal. I turned to alcohol and drugs to bury the pain, but it never really worked. I fell into a deep depression, yet continued to keep up the facade that all was okay and tried to be who I thought people wanted me to be. I knew down deep that if they really knew me, they would hate me as much as I hated me. I went off to college, but dropped out because my depression was so severe. I then met a wonderful therapist. She helped me get back on my feet. Although I wasn't able to confide in her about the rapes, the molestation, or the fact that I was gay, at least she helped me to believe in myself a little bit. She helped me to find hope. She got me to return to college and look toward a future. For a number of years, I did okay. I married (although I knew it was a mistake), had my two beautiful children, and worked to create the perfect life that I had dreamed about. Unfortunately, it was all still a facade. I still battled depression, and I was still pushing down all the pain from my past. Then I met this friend. Although I always presented what I wanted people to see, she had this ability to see past that to the real me. In time, I realized that I didn't have to pretend with her. We became closer, and I opened up to her about my past. For the first time, I spoke of the rapes and what my father had done to me. I was sinking into a deeper depression during this time because I was finally facing all the pain that I had buried. She was there for me. With her encouragement, I found another therapist. I began to work through all the pain and loss in my past. And in time, I slowly began to admit to Rose (and to myself) that I was gay. As scary as it was to face all these things, I soon discovered that addressing them made the load lighter. And having a loving friend to support me along the way made it all that much easier. I felt loved and respected for the first time in my life. I fell deeply in love with this woman...and experienced a level of love that I had never even imagined before, let alone felt. I couldn't (and still can't) create the words to express what she means to me. As time passed, the most amazing thing happened. I actually began to know myself. And, most unbelievable of all...I liked me. I felt proud that I was a survivor. I felt hopeful that there was a happy future ahead of me. I felt that I was worthy of love and respect and that I no longer had to be what other people wanted me to be. I could just be me. There are still hardships ahead of me, for sure. I am in the middle of an ugly divorce, I don't know how I will support my girls & myself, and I don't know how people in my small town will react once they learn that I am a lesbian. But you know what, it's okay. I know I will be okay. I have survived worse, and I can do this. I have wonderful partner in life and I have my children. And I have me. That is my happy ending.
Jules
Jules
Wow Laurie these stories are so incredible. I have to stop and think about why God gave women the ability to overcome the most difficult tragedies.
I'm so amazed by all the stories. As an ex Officer in the military, I would like to tell all these brave women, that it would have been a great honor to stand amongst them in battle. I have no hardship story to tell here, only praise for the woman who was my hero.
My mom deserted five children and my dad was tasked to raise us. Helen, a lady up the street from our home, let me hang out at her store all the time. She would let me help carry out groceries, count money out to customers, stock the shelves, and tote pop bottles to the garage. In return, I was allowed to have anything I wanted in the store. Every Wednesday her and I would go to the mall and she would buy me clothes. Every delivery guy was my buddy, and I would help them unload their trucks.
I stayed away from my dad's house, because it was a real struggle being around my family. My sisters drilled it into my head that I was ugly, my oldest sister beat me up and bossed me around, and they were always running away from home and doing drugs. Helen was my hero and kept me safe, and I eventually ended up living in her home nine years before she married my dad.
Helen, and the grotto people, encouraged me and praised me when I would play ball or clown with them in the parades. So, I like to think that I have many mom's and dad's. All of those wonderful people, were directly responsible for my well being, and successes. My graduating flight school and becoming an officer was a drive to please them. When I go home, I have to visit them and spend hours catching them up on what I'm doing now.
I have some issues from my mother, like never being good enough for her or my dad. But, they are so minor in comparison to bug, Jo, Ting, Gigi, you, angel, jules....
I can just cry when I read the stories that have posted here. I can only hope through my mom's legacy, that I can help other children not suffer what these women have suffered. That is why I'm letting the couple with two children live with me right now. I'm not doing it for the parents, I'm doing it for the children. We must protect them above all else.
Enough rambling, I just wanted to let everyone know how touching their stories are.
hugs all,
halo
Edited 6/4/2005 10:05 pm ET ET by halo_hvn
hugs
halo
I am happy you have Rose..and your Children...
((((Hugs))))
((((Hugs))))
C >^. A .
((((Hugs))))
C >^. A .
You truly are a survivor. It is amazing the inner strength we have deep down inside. And it feels so good to find it when we need it.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
I am sure your experience will touch someone elses life, it already has touched mine.
Laurie
co-cl of Lesbian Life Message Board
Email- didoangst@comcast.net
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-bhlesbianlif/
http://homepage.mac.com/lauriedav/PhotoAlbum1.html
You have been through so much. You were blessed to have Helen in your life.
I am proud of your sevice to our country and the role you have played. I am very proud of you and thank you for posting to this thread.
Laurie
co-cl of Lesbian Life Message Board
Email- didoangst@comcast.net
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-bhlesbianlif/
http://homepage.mac.com/lauriedav/PhotoAlbum1.html
Halo, I would like to thank you for sharing your story, I really can't wait to meet you in real life. Of course, I've only told a small part of my story. I would have to make my post very, very long. But understand the hardships in my life has made me a stronger person for it. I don't mean to make light of our situations, but as the sayings, "Whatever doesn't kill you, will make you stronger".
As a friend, I do love you. I hope to hear from you soon.
Loving hugs!
Hugs,
Sebastian
http://www.facebook.com/sebastianbruce
(((((((((Jules))))))))))
You are such a survivor. It's so wonderful that you found such a special person to fall in love with and to help you deal with the pain from your past.
I hope that once your divorce is over, things will settle down and you can truly enjoy all the wonderful things in your life. I think you will handle everything, including being "out" in your community, just fine.
Hugs,
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