I hear you

As I was on the flight back to Denver from being home for one of the most wonderful weeks with my beloved family, I was reading this book, note to self, and it sparked so many ideas and I took to writing in notes on my phone. I wanted to just share my raw writing with you all.

By now you know that I am not fearful when it comes to sharing my thoughts or my feelings. I hope to someday put all of these thoughts and crazy ideas in a book for you all to enjoy… or maybe just for myself. So here we go!

A memoir; Reminiscence: the years of struggle, how you push through, overcome and kick ass on the daily even when you don’t feel like you are going anywhere.

When you stop and look around notice how things have changed, how you have changed. Know that I hear you, I have always heard you. you have had so many years of internal struggles, when you barely felt like a person, a live, breathing, feeling person. the world seemed to move around you… like you were a ghost watching it turn.

I heard you in your time of need when you hit the lowest point of your life at the tender age of 16…when you overdosed because you felt worthless. You felt like no one would care if you even existed in this world. Because for the last few years it had not been kind to you, you tried.. and I heard you. When your mind was quiet you heard a small voice that said “don’t do it… think if him. He needs you, and think of how you need him.”

Scared, I called my then boyfriend who comes over, sticks his hand down my throat and induced a vomit fest for the next few hours. His eyes were on me for the next few days, rightfully so. As a sweet child, I felt like I had nothing to live for. Depression is so real, my friends. To this day I am not even sure what all I took, but I took gobs and gobs of whatever I could find in my house… I’ll say this, the next few days were hell.

I remember feeling ashamed that I had even attempted such acts of self-hate, but in that moment I imagine that it seemed better than going through life feeling as worthless as I did. I hated my self and my life and often wondered “why me?” I felt like a curse,  cloud of darkness that turns everyone bad. At 16 you don’t think straight and your sense of reality is skewed, as you are still a child. (end of the journal entry.)

I don’t want to just leave it at that, but I will say that I value that life experience more and more the older I get. I truly have learned to love and appreciate myself and who I am today, even with my dark past. Judge if you’d like, its easy for those that never stood where I stood. I ask not for sympathy, but for understanding. Share love, be light in someone’s day you honestly never know if people are struggling internally.

I can say that having my brother in my life is the only thing that saved me, he would have been devastated and I couldn’t bare to cause him more hurt. He needed me, and the good Lord knows that I needed him. Hold on, even when you think you can’t. Life changes so rapidly and if you hold your head up and push forward knowing you want a better life, but also seek it actively… you will get there. Hear yourself, love yourself and hold on.

 

Until next time, friends.

 

-ky

 

When I loved you least

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Self-hate; it happens at a young age and it’s absolutely heartbreaking. Before I knew what society expected of women, or what boys liked or what made me feel pretty, I was teased by other kids… and sure, you’re sitting here reading these words and saying something like “everyone was teased as a child”  Sure, but why? Does this teach us that no matter how old we get, we will be hazed for our looks, the way we dress, how we talk etc…

I remember the first “nickname” I ever got in school, kankles… I had never been aware that your ankles had to be a certain size to be considered “cute little ankles” I never thought to look at my body and size it up, self-doubt or even HATE it. It stuck with me, subconsciously, in a lot of ways. It wasn’t until I hit middle school where I decided that I had hideous legs and I never wanted to show them, I never wore shorts and was always terrified that someone would notice how large my ankles were. I felt like a freak and often questioned why they were so much “bigger” than other girls. I look back at that and think how ridiculous of me… but it was because I had heard it more than once, and I tried to laugh it off, but it hurt me… As I aged, I only became more self-aware… and I stopped doing things like smiling so much, because someone mentioned that even tho’ I had a pretty smile, it would be better if my teeth were completely straight. I got gut punched over and over and over… I never felt good in my body because even if people didn’t realize it, they were judging me solely on my appearance.

I went through so many stages with my body as a teen, sadly none of those stages were ever self-love… I was conditioned at a young age to pick apart my body piece my piece and HATE it because it looked different or it wasn’t the “ideal image” of perfection.  So I stopped eating a lot, and I stopped smiling, looking at myself in the mirror and I started to fill my head with negative thoughts about my body. It was a lonely place to be, really. No one talked about this stuff when I was a kid, and I dare not mention it to my parents because they would, of course, make me feel silly for feeling this way… Which I also believe to be an issue. I remember graduating high school at a whopping 95 lbs, granted I am short, so it doesn’t seem too bad at the age of 18 and sitting at 5’2… but it wasn’t a good 95 lbs. It was an “I hate myself, I’m not good enough” 95 lbs.

I carried that hatred with me for YEARS, and it was so harmful, it made me fear the world. It made me fear showing people my true colors and I became socially awkward and timid. I was alone because that was the only time I truly felt comfortable. It makes me sick to think that at one point, the woman who now loves herself something FIERCE, couldn’t even stand to look at herself in the mirror.

The path to recovery started about 4 years ago when I stopped looking to others to validate me. I started eating better, going to the gym and paying attention to how I felt. By exercising, fueling my body with healthful foods and paying attention to how I felt, something amazing happened. I saw myself, for the first time in YEARS… or maybe for the first time EVER. I no longer saw myself as the girl with the pretty, but crooked smile, or kankles. I saw me, Kylie Ray, a girl with a unique outlook on life and love… a girl full of love, life, creativity, and awesomeness… I had finally grazed self-love, and I had never felt better… Now, with that said, I, of course, had setbacks and talked down to myself, I was still new to this whole self-love thing.

Fast forward, I am 28 years young I think I am the bee’s knees, and wouldn’t dare dream of hating myself. I am a strong, fierce, educated, go-getting, hard working, selfish, giving, caring, fearless, kind, and stubborn young woman. I am full of ambition and zest for life, and sure I get ridiculed by “small” people, but I realized that I am not going to be everyone’s cup of tea… and guess what. I love myself anyway. I own myself, each and every day, even the parts that I need to work on because that is what true self-love means…. Loving yourself in all of your phases, stages, and pieces. I am and will forever be a work in progress because I believe there is always room for improvement. The only difference is that now I do it for my DAMN self.

Self-hate is a process that we alllll go through, and maybe is a tad necessary, but it’s not a stage we “grow out of” it’s a hole we must climb our way out of. So, if you are sitting there thinking about all fo the things that are “Wrong with you” I encourage you to stop that right now, you are a beautiful, wonderfully made human being and there is not a damn thing wrong with you. You are capable of anything and everything. So get cracking friend… go out there and show the world how awesome you are, grace people with your presence and stop hiding. Let’s stop the self-hate, by uplifting others, encouraging them and never passing judgment. Your idea of beauty belongs to you and only you… remember that.

 

 

Love thy-self

 

 

-ky