Your answer can seriously change my life today for the better.

A lot of bad things have happened. I might have been able to have changed some of it, if I was smarter or thinking more clearly, or know what I know now.

But I did what I did. And, of course, what I did was not perfect. Sometimes, they were much less than. And, many things that have happened to me have been bad, unfortunate, and just, tragic. I can't explain it, or justify it, or try to excuse it. I did what I did, and I can't change it. I can't change everything that's happened to me. I can't change my past. Of course, my past brought me a lot of suffering and pain. If I could change it, I would. If I could have lived a normal life, I would. But I can't.

Now, I can only take it from here - where I am now. Where would I like to go? Who do I want to be? What do I want to give?

The fact is, that while my past resulted in a lot of suffering, it also brought me where I am today. I'm someone I wouldn't be if all of those things didn't happen in my life. I would be someone else, then. But today, I am me. I like to think I have my weaknesses and strengths... a lot of the weaknesses result from my special past, but a lot of my strengths do, too. If I had not gone through it, I would be someone else today. But who I am today is not necessarily bad. It's just different.

Sometimes, I wonder who I would have been - who I should have been, had my past been normal. But really, none of that matters anymore. Because whoever that person is, that's not me. I am me, who I am today, here and now. The one who survived everything, the one who suffered and hurt and cried and felt so lost and alone. I'm the one who went through all of that. Most other people didn't experience what I did. Most other people don't really understand. Most other people didn't learn from it. Many people won't have my weaknesses, but they also won't have my strengths.

I learned some hard truths I wish I had never learned. I saw some bad things, and felt some bad things. But I also went through some hard things that allow me to become wbo I am today. They allow me to see, know, and have felt what most other people haven't. This allows me to become what most other people can't. Both in the bad ways, and in the good ways.

/r/emotionalneglect Thread