breakable girls and boys

we are so fragile and our cracking bones make noise and we are just breakable girls and boys. 

so i am sitting on a plane listening to music that i am sure is about to kill me. i am about to lose it, and have no idea why. well, i have about seventy ideas. all of them lead me to a place where i have no control. and the more and more people start to read these ramblings i call writing the more i feel like i should some how alter the content of this blog to be less personal, more analytical, less crazy about to lose it on a plane steph. but right now, at thirty thousand feet above real life, i just don’t want to do that. 

i’m sad. and confused. and connected. supported. and alone. and leaving an amazing vacation and an amazing city to return to amazing friends in an amazing city. and i am wholeheartedly bawl my eyes out sad. i’m sad to leave vacation, a fantasy world, to return to real life unemployment and dating drought. i am sad that someone is going to read this and not get me. and sad at the honest and unbelievably positive response i have received for writing. there is just something missing in it right now. and i am scared that i am leaning on past good things to fill this void. and when those past good things don’t work, or end for the same reason they did then, i am left feeling a little less sure that this all will work out.  and how do you process something that you know you want but just cannot have. where do you turn when you have no control over something. something you want so badly it breaks your heart. and since you can’t have it, how are you supposed know that it truly is that something that you want so badly. 

how is it that six months after leaving my job, friends, home and life and moving across the country to start anew, i am already feeling restless. why am i reveling in this weekend’s discussion of grad school and a work routine that lead to a missed chance to connect one more time before i left. why do i long for all the things i was so excited to have already accomplished. ready for new. maybe it is unemployment, feeling one hundred percent undesired, or unsure of what my next steps are but i feel restless and stagnant and worthless and sad. and heartbroken. for reasons i just cannot figure out. 

heartbreak. the feeling that you have no idea how to continuing moving through life due to a lack of the returned love, desire, spark and presence of the one thing you feel you cannot breathe without. here i am, on this plane, simply heartbroken. for seventy different reasons. all uncontrollable by me. because that’s what heartbreak is. something you would put all the power in your mind, body and soul to combat. and it still wins. leaving you feeling defeated, at loss of energy, hope, and worth all while simultaneously smothering you in the memories of what you had prior to the loss that made you realize that it was the only thing you ever needed. 

this is a real life glimpse of the story of a twenty five year old midwestern girl overwhelmed with love, honest connection, distance, friendship, accomplishment, and pure old fashioned heartbreak. 

but i finally saw the piece of love in your face, that bathed me in regret then you drove me to places i’ll never forget

2 comments ↓

#1 Dave on 10.29.08 at 2:37 pm

The world understands…even if and especially because that doesn’t help, it is still worth knowing. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself. You might enjoy ‘More Die of Heartbreak’ by Saul Bellow.

#2 mikebuddy on 10.30.08 at 12:29 pm

Hey Steph, no need to be so hard on yourself, you’re just starting your great adventure. Way back in 1982 I moved to California from Michigan because a friend had moved there for a high-paying aerospace job. I took him out drinking on his last day in Michigan & he convinced me (at the time recently out of college, broke up with college girlfriend, dead-end job, no car, no plans, etc.) to move. Within 30 days, I was living on his couch. Within a few months, I was still unemployed & spending lonely nights sitting on the beach wondering what I had done & seemingly regretting my big, semi-drunken decision. Sparing you the details bit by bit things got better. I met my best friend (he still lives in Venice, CA & we talk often), I got one job, then a better job & finally a dream job. Within 2 years I had met the love of my life (well okay, we dated for 8 years & finally broke it off when I moved back to Michigan but still.) and my life has been an amazing series of adventures, friendships, and travels.

All I can tell you is that everyone looking in would later tell me they were jealous and amazed that I had moved clear across country and I didn’t live the life that the midwest upbringing said I should. I kept some of the journals from back then and reread them once in awhile and smile at how far I had come when I wasn’t paying attention and just living life. For now, I’ll just send you some positive energy on the chi wave. Peace.

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