We found w o n d e r l a n d.

I am 29 now.

So much has changed and the things that I suffered through… my younger siblings no longer have to. The way I was never allowed to express myself through clothes or fashion, my sister does so without reservation. The way I was never allowed to have a social life and it severed many friendships (and brought forth a lot of anxiety and trauma that stems into my adult life), and now my sister is out everyday (whereas I still have PTSD and start having a panic attack if I am out too late and she waltzes in after 2/3 a.m all laadeedaa) The way my parents never supported me and showed up in the way I needed, my sister gets that. The way they used to tell me I would be married off by 23 or that I was expected to do all the housework and now my sister does shit all.

I suffered so she did not. Because my parents saw how badly it messed me up.

Of course, now I am the one in therapy and that is a surplus amount of issues in their own right but I am so glad that she does not have to jump the hoops that I had to. I now set boundaries with my family, advocate for myself and tell my family to get their shit together because I refuse to let them take my adulthood when my teenage and young adult years were snatched from me. And now? They listen. Because they KNOW. They realize. They UNDERSTAND.

Been apart of the Buffynatural community for almost a decade — it is is nice to see it picking up on here finally.