We moved from Pahrump, NV to Round Rock, TX on October 1, 2009.
By the time we moved I was exhausted. Mentally exhausted.
Living in that desolate island of fear, tears, sand and mountains had completely depleted me. I felt so alone. Although my mom only lived a few minutes away and my husband was with me…I was alone.
I had submerged myself so deeply in self-pity and self-hatred, blame, guilt, remorse, and those constant day dreams of what might have been, I was beyond reach of anyone else. I was alone in a dark, sad, tear-filled cocoon of my own making.
I couldn’t wait to move. I had pushed everyone away. I would talk with my friends, listen to stories about their children, the whole time thinking to myself “You don’t understand. You just don’t understand how hard this is for me.” They didn’t understand. Because I never told anyone. Moving seemed like the best solution at that point. I thought that if I changed my outside, if I changed my zip code, that it would change the way that I felt.
I had convinced myself that it was all because Oli didn’t have enough support. That it was because I didn’t have enough support. It was. But, it wasn’t. Oli did need more help with people experienced in blindness, but I had some support. I just couldn’t see it then.
I had met and made friends with other moms who had visually impaired kids. I had become good friends and remain friends with some of them. None of them were totally blind though. I had led myself to believe that because their kids weren’t totally blind, that they didn’t really understand what it was like.
I had made it US vs. THEM.
I had isolated myself even against the people who knew what it was like. I was looking for all of the differences in our lives rather than the similarities. I think some part of me enjoyed that feeling of isolation. Some part of me liked feeling sorry for myself and enjoyed believing that I was the only one in the world who felt the way that I did. That no one could possibly understand my struggles.
It just simply wasn’t true though.
LOTS of people knew how I felt.
If I just would have stopped for a second and looked outside myself, I would have seen that. I would have seen that I had people surrounding me that wanted to help me. They wanted to understand what I was going through. If I would have made myself available to them…if I would have made myself a little vulnerable…I would have seen that.
I didn’t.
I didn’t when we lived in Nevada and I didn’t when we first got to Texas.
