Warning: This work has been rated 18+ for language and mature content.
Preface:
So, the year of 2019 changed my life in many ways: my first real love, my first apartment, my first road trip with friends and not family, my first experience with addiction, my first heartbreak, and my first experience with trauma in my adulthood, even though my childhood was full of trauma, experiencing it later in life definitely feels different, more desperate. I escaped death and found myself sleeping on the floor of my childhood bedroom. I had a choice to make, lay down in defeat and die or get up work hard and live. Without my best friend, ex-lover to figure things out with I resorted to my first ever diary to vent out all of my thoughts and feelings. I love writing, so journaling shouldn't be that hard for me, but in my past I tried and tried to keep a journal or diary, and I always found that my life was too boring, or my emotions were too strong to face, and I always ended up never finishing. But, this journal has a purpose, and only I'll know when I've reached it. Hopefully by allowing others to peek into my life, they will be more informed about sex abuse, rape, domestic violence, emotional abuse, and mental health. Loving yourself should always be on your priority list, and sometimes it takes us a lot longer than others to realize that. I am here. I survived. And, I wholeheartedly believe I made it through, so I can be an anchor and spokesperson for those still struggling to not drown in these messy situations. I will fight for you, listen to you, and hold your hand and wipe your tears as you discover your own self healing. It is hard and lonely at times, but I, Tiffany Brooke, promise you are never alone.
10/19/19
Dear Arizona,
My life has been a bunch of crazy ups and downs lately. I wanted Justin and Arizona to work out so badly, but I never asked if that's what Jesus wanted for my life. During this time, I need Jesus to be my best friend. I need to confide everything in Him, and I need Him to guide me. I still make poor choices. I still believe I can have the best of both worlds, but I know the drinking, the drugs, the bad influences will all catch up with me one day.
Why does music so perfectly sum up our feelings? Jesus, I've text Justin like five times in a row even though I keep telling myself I'm only going to text him if he text me first. My feelings are so mixed up. I know orI think I know I'll never mean much to Justin or he'd actually change, but I am so deadly in love with him that I'll accept any morsel of attention he'll give me. There's other people who deserve my love and attention more than he does, but I still let him control all the thoughts I have, and things I do. I thought this was my time to shine. I was going to have my own place, job, car; I was going to be independent with someone who picked me, wanted me, loved me! But, it wasn't the life I had always envisioned for myself. I settled for less because I believe I have little to no worth. My self esteem is at a negative level, so I accepted all the behavior I said I never would. He pushed me, tried to run me over with my own car on my birthday, threw me down stairs, was drunk or high more than he was sober on an every day basis. I still love him because I can see his potential to be a good person, but he has to forgive himself, love himself, and start to heal from his own shitty past. I don't know if he'll ever start that journey, and I feel like shit because I wanted to be the one to love him through that journey of self acceptance.
I feel paranoid and crazy when I know he's posting new pictures on snapchat because his snap score is going up, but he's not posting on his story for everyone to see, and I automatically assume he's talking and having sex with someone new. I only care because he says he still loves me, wants me, and can't wait until I'm back in Arizona. I just wanted it to work with him so much that it's hard to imagine a future without him, but I think he's okay if his future is without me. So, it's time to focus on loving me. I want to save money for a car, a place, and future travel. I want to take a vacation to Disneyland by myself. I want to start therapy for myself. I also, do NOT want to work at Chipotle for the rest of my life.
Being back in Ohio has made me feel like I'm better off dead. I feel like I should just spend the rest of my time on Earth traveling and then die young. As much as I want to be a wife and mother, I don't think that's suppose to be apart of my story. That feels heartbreaking, but hopefully acknowledging this will help me move on and stop fantasizing about a life I'll never have. I'm thankful for what I currently have, but I never want to hit rock bottom again, unless I am going to end up dead.
I wanted that married, mom, career, strong woman life, but bad boys, drugs, alcohol, and several failed attempts at an independent life robbed me of that because of all the time I've wasted, I feel like I'm too old to accomplish any of that. I want to be wanted and loved. I want to be chosen by someone. I want to feel like I'm not a failure, but I also enjoy the way drugs and alcohol make everything numb. I just want to be numb to everything going on inside of me, and pleasant for everyone to be around.
End of chapter
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137,507 Literary Works • 672,040 Reviews
This is a very powerful piece and I think that you do a good job of conveying a lot of the more difficult feelings/issues that victims of domestic violence/abuse are oftentimes confronted with.
In terms of plot/the actual journal entry, you do a great job of depicting the combination of raw hopefulness and disappointment that has undoubtedly plagued almost everyone at some point, but is even more poignant in victims of DA. That being said, aside from a few grammar mistakes, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece.
The only comment I have is really more of a suggestion; perhaps a few more details surrounding the narrator's hopes for the future as well as her past struggles would help develop the image of the narrator in our head.
Overall, though, this is a very thoughtful piece and I would love to read more installments of it. Write on!
Thank you! Installments two and three are up as well, if you would like to read them.
This is a pretty interesting piece Rascal! And I definitely appreciate the author's note and the purpose of the piece to inspire & encourage others.
-> "text" should be "texted"There were a few spelling/grammar issues here and there, most of them were pretty simple so I think you could catch with a read-through -
I think here: it would be more dramatic if you reversed the list, because the car one is definitely the most crazy/serious, and it wouldn't take readers by such a surprise if you built up to it.
I appreciate the portrayal of the complexity of the Ex's life - they have a tough, traumatic past themselves (which I think a lot of abuser do) but that the character doesn't make excuses for the abuse despite the ex's own past trauma.
it's not until this point that I realized the letter is to a place (or rather a state) rather than a person named Arizona.
- this sentence could be worded more clearly. "unless" should maybe be "or else"
this definitely makes me wonder about some of the information about the speaker like how old they actually are - it seems like there's probably a good chance they can still achieve all they hoped for, even if they're a little older. This reveals some of their low self-esteem, but it would be interesting to now their age someone if that could be woven in.
This chapter definitely portrayed the mixed emotions and motivations, often present in someone who has experienced abuse with an intimate partner - the conflict between self-love and loving them, and just learning how function independently again is so well portrayed. I like that the conflicting ideas and feelings are highlighted in a way that shows the reader how they conflict without portraying the speaker as being irrational - you explain why she still has feelings for the ex while also knowing she can't be with him anymore.
Definitely an emotional little window into the character's life!
all the best,
alliyah
Thank you so much for the awesome review!
Hi there,
My laptop only had a couple minutes of battery life left when I picked a random work from the green room. Just a little something to read before I hit the bed. Then it got me hooked. So I rushed to plug the charger in and here I am now to write a review.
I'm not too sure how to approach this. I don't know how much of it is fact and how much of it is fiction. I'm assuming that it's a direct extract from your diary. That makes it autobiographical. And I don't know how appropriate it'd be to review that.
I just have to say I love how honest the writing feels. It's an extract from your diary. The piece is essentially a collection of your thoughts. Pure thoughts. A diary entry, a story you pen down at the end of the day or at the end of a journey is not supposed to seem polished. Not necessarily. It's supposed to feel raw. A diary is whatever you need it to be: a pocket confessional, a device to study your thoughts, a treasure trunk to lock the pain away in etc. So, there's not a lot of room for critique. Imagine if I started ranting "Hey, what if you felt this after feeling that," "You know that thing that happened serves this arc well" etc. Would be very moronic.
It was an emotional read. It went from self-reflection to an illustration of insecurity to hopefulness to helplessness. I guess it's an accurate representation of how thoughts come and go.
I'd like to mention another thing. There may have been a couple instances of grammatical error but it's a diary entry and I feel they're only appropriate.
I'm beginning to question if I know what it means to review something like this. So, that's it, I think. I hope you have a good day. May we never lack the strength to tackle life.
~MAS.
I appreciate your review! It's a completely fictional work!