Beauty In The Breakdown: A Redux

Things are different now.


I last wrote anything of consequence blog ten months ago, right at the time when I was at my bleakest. It was a culmination of events that began in December of 2013 and led to me not recognizing myself anymore, or even in a position capable of doing so. I felt lost, unsure of what I was doing or where I was going.


I tend to not take care of myself during highly stressful times. Usually, I'm so focused on making sure everyone and everything else is okay that I don't stop to think about myself. It's how I'm conditioned. To this day, I still feel some guilt over the my perceived selfishness at shutting down and walking away for as long as I did.


It was necessary.


I know that.


But that still doesn't mean that I was okay with it.


My body, however, had had enough and I just collapsed within myself.


I wasn't a very good friend to people during that time. I was even worse (and really, still am) at responding to the hundreds of messages I'd received.


I knew, though, that I couldn't keep going as I was.


So I stopped. Stepped away.


Took some time to breathe.


Things are different now.


I went to therapy.


It helped. Sort of.


I was diagnosed with PTSD, which, honestly, sounds as ridiculous now as it did in August of last year. I was not in a war. I have never been a victim of a violent act.


I told the therapist this.


She laughed slightly and said, "It's not about what you have or haven't done,. It's about what's happened to you. You're smart. Don't act dumb about this. It's trauma plain and simple."


God, I hated that.


It made sense. I still hated it.


Full transparency: Eric won't be coming to live in Virginia with me. Logistically, it's just not possible. In Indiana, he has his family that is able to provide the care he needs. If he came here, it would just be me. I can't give him what he needs, and it wouldn't be fair to either of us. Medicare doesn't pay for as much as you might think it does, meaning a round the clock nurse, which he would have to have if he came here as I work 50 hours a week and write another 20 hours a week on top of that.


It sucks. We were dealt a very shitty hand. I have raged at the unfairness of it all to the point where I didn't even know what to think anymore.


But things are different now, okay? I've taken the steps needed to find even footing again. I've put myself first, even if it felt wrong the entire time I was doing it. My last therapy appointment was in February and I've been doing okay. That doesn't mean I'm 100% fine, of course. I am still coming to terms with the repercussions of everything that happened. Some days, I think I have a grasp on it. Some days, I am the happiest I've been in months. Some days, I have to force myself out of bed.



"What do you like to do?" the therapist asked me.



"About what?" I said.



"Anything. What's something you love?"



"Reading. Writing. Watching movies."



"Writing? What do you write?"



"Books."



She was surprised at that. "You've written books?"



I shrugged, because I always get weirdly shy when people find out that I'm an author."



"When was the last time you wrote?"



"November 2013."



So she told me that I should start again.



And so I did.



I wrote.



And wrote.



And motherfucking wrote.



In September, I started writing The Lightning-Struck Heart.



I finished it in November. You get it in July.



I finished Withered & Sere and Crisped & Sere. You get them in 2016.



In February, I started How To Be A Normal Person.



I finished it in April. You get that one in October.



Five weeks ago, I started the sequel to Tell Me It's Real, tentatively titled The Queen and the Homo Jock King. I will be finished with it by June. You will see that one this winter.



Then it's BOATK4. Then it's Burn II. Then it's the sequel to Lightning. The third and fourth book after Withered and Crisped. Then TMIR3.


Do you see where I'm going with this?


Writing, man. It's saved me. It's done more for me than anything else could have.


Things are different now.


And they always will be.


But I am a goddamn motherfucking writer, and I am going to tell my story, and other stories, and I am going to do it for as long as my fingers can press the keys.


Life isn't what I thought it would be.


But, at least right now, I can tell myself that it'll be okay.


Because there is beauty in the breakdown. And that beauty comes from the pieces that are left. They may not fit together like they did before, and the shape might not be the same. But it's still recognizable and that's what matters now.


I know who I am. I know what I'm going to do.


I have plans.


And I can't wait to show them to you.


Love,


Tj