What’s something you’ve done that your past self would be proud of?

My younger self would be Very proud that I stopped lying to protect my family’s image. I was threatened, coerced & psychologically abused to stay Silent.

After spending over half my life in therapy & having parents that still trigger me, I’m done covering for them. I have always been the family Scapegoat.

No More. Most of my parents’ so-called friends are enablers that have fully known of the abuse but looked the other way. Their oldest friends told my mother to leave me in a street shelter in Seattle. It caused me to have suicidal ideation & they should be ashamed of themselves.

My younger self would be proud, I have a stable marriage & roof over my head. I’ve never had to strip or use drugs to get over the abuse. The irony is that the couple that did that took in a girl in the exact position I was in. They never extended that to me & for that they should be ashamed.

Today, I’m happy & healthy & overall have a good life. A life I bet my parents enablers could never imagine.

What’s the best online course you’ve ever taken?

I took it during COVID & it changed my life. I learned so much about myself & was capable of & how smart I was. The instructor was brilliant, even though we weren’t in the same place she made us feel as though we were.

It was a long weekend but I learned so much but when I wanted to enroll it was no longer offered here in Norway. Something that saddens me greatly.

I will always look back & love that long weekend. How much I learned & how art without meaning really has an impact. Being creative isn’t about drawing the perfect picture but about getting your emotions out of your body & on paper.

It’s one of the reasons I now have 3 different journals. One for my feelings, one for observation & one for travel. For me writing has always been an outlet & I’ve learned to write through writers block. I don’t consider my blog a journal but in a way it is.