i worry that love is violence

I'm so tired of "the power of friendship and love saved us!" Don't get me wrong, it's cute and a good message for kids and do I do enjoy it. However I wish there were more things revolving around independence. As a victim of abuse who survived basically on my own with essentially no support, I wish I saw that represented more. No, I didn't survive out of love and friendship. I didn't do it to save my friends, I didn't do it for the world, I didn't do it out of kindness. It wasn't because I had friends worth fighting for, it wasn't because I had help. A group of friends didn't suddenly show up and save me when I needed them the most. There was no last minute rescue. All I had was myself. I scratched and clawed and screamed my way out of that ditch. My fingernails dug into the dirt and I got covered in mud and my heart raced. No hand reached down to pull me up. I pulled myself up. It wasn't through the grace of God or some divine message. It was through my sweat and tears and drive. Nobody helped me, I helped myself. I think about people in similar positions being almost assaulted with the idea that love will save you, the people will swoop in and rescue you, that friendship will fix everything- because you're left in this horrible situation expecting some saviour when really, all you have is yourself and that HAS to be enough sometimes. You might sweat and scream and it'll be the most painful, impossible feeling you've ever experience, but you CAN do it. You don't need to wait for someone to show up. Do it for yourself- not the world, not your family, not your friends, not for love. For YOU. You are enough of a reason.