Another Step Forward ...

I met Jamie when I was in my late twenties, it was love at first sight for me. He seemed to feel the same way about me, or so it seemed. We were both going through rough patches with our previous relationships and were ready for a fresh start together... We dated exclusively for over a year before moving in together. It felt like a dream come true, but as time went on, I started noticing subtle things that made me uncomfortable... He'd make cutting comments about my appearance whenever we got into an argument... He was constantly belittling me, telling me how he wished I were more 'feminine' and that I should be grateful he even wanted to date someone like me. Every time it happened, a part of me would crumble... I ignored the red flags for as long as I could because I wanted so badly to believe we had something special. But one day after months of this treatment... things finally came to a head when he called me a 'trap' and laughed about how he was just using me all along... That's when it really hit home that this wasn't love, but emotional abuse... It took leaving him for me to realize I deserved so much better. I've since been working on myself and am slowly finding my footing again. It still hurts to think about it sometimes, but I'm glad I made the decision I did...