Life Stories and Everyday Drama - page 31

Soo, I have digital photo class for my final I have to submit photos, whatever, I pick my sister as my model.. Today, was a busy day, so I decided to take pictures outside @ 8 pm. I’m always aware of my surroundings, checking every car that drives past as I hide my camera( don’t wanna get mugged🙄🙄) but this guy drives past and I can sense he stopped by not looking and all I hear is “period bitch” trying to be cheeky and stuff. mind you my sister is 13. And it might sound like a compliment but it was uncomfortable for her. He probably thought she was older. But I’m just sharing this bc I need to get it off my chest. I told my mom and her she was like “that’s why I didn’t want yall outside” should’ve taken her word. But for me I think this just a trauma thing for me. I seen women get catcalled online or either in person. And it has taking a toll on what I dress, not liking tight shirts and stuff, thinking it was drawing attention which it shouldn’t.. (for anyone wondering why I took pictures outside late was bc of my theme for my photo, Polaroid nostalgia)

Why does my girl best friend always constantly stay with her boyfriend even when he always lies to her and doesn’t spend much time with her( just for context both of them are my best friends I had been best friends with my boy best friend before they got together)

So let’s just call my girl best friend Amy and my boy best friend Ethan

So Amy always complains to me that Ethan is always hiding his phone and she eventually gets to the bottom of it where he has got pictures of girls on his phone and he is lying about having them, she has “broken up” with him too many times and I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t know what to tell her anymore coz I say to her it’s up to you what you do it’s not my relationship, she still goes back to him and forgives him but how many times is she going to repeat the same things all the time and she gets mad, upset and even blocks him and then unblocks him and then is all perfectly normal with him the next day , he always gets annoyed at me or take it out on me if he is frustrated about something but never his own girlfriend like I’m his best friend not a verbal punch bag, she never confronts him about it because she will get upset about how he will react, she doesn’t confront about him about certain things coz he always reacts the same he gets in a mood with her, he says I’m not doing this, I’m not listening to what you are saying because you are constantly going on,a woman has the right to say what she is feeling and if it is bothering her then she should be able to talk about it without someone getting annoyed about it or doesn’t want to listen because men know they are in the wrong they just don’t care, so what do I do about this guys

[Translated from Spanish. Reminder: IIWIARS is English only]

I feel like I had a good day today. I felt clearheaded as I reflected on the nature of my relationship with my father, which until recently had been extremely tangled—and therefore problematic.

My father lives with his partner and her daughter, and I live separately. There’s a sister I know nothing about, and my mother is a shared figure between us whom we both have essentially discarded due to her abusive behavior and controlling tendencies. My father still interacts with that whole group—except with me. Our interaction is practically nonexistent.

He lives with that pair, has to work with my mother, and I have no idea what kind of relationship he has with my sister. Essentially, my father carries a heavier family load than I do, on top of working and studying. As for me, I don’t have much of a family context. I work and explore creative outlets. In that sense, I assume I have more flexibility, though I don’t waste time either—unlike him. Our reflections come from different modes: his from contrast with a loaded family routine, and mine from being detached from such a routine. In the end, it leads us to the same thing.

My father provides financially—he pays for my housing and gives me money for small luxuries. I, on the other hand, cover my own breakfast, lunch, and dinner, house cleaning costs, snacks, and personal entertainment. In that way, we’re even.

We both stay in our own spaces—he in his academic bubble, and I in my freedom. I’ve left behind the academic setting as a symbol of discarding the past, while he reclaims it by investing in expanding his knowledge. Both of us, in our own ways, have tried to break away from the events of the past. However, things resurfaced after a long period of imposed silence.

That silence stemmed from problems with my stepmother. Contact resumed when I began expressing things I hadn’t voiced during that time. After that, my father started controlling me through opaque conditions, designed to avoid disapproval on either side and to prevent conflict. Eventually, I stopped playing by those rules, to the point of disrupting the family structure—just as he had once disrupted my principles of freedom and personal growth. That led to a kind of balance: he and I have both suffered the same, so now we can approach each other with both caution and independence. From this, I conclude that I’m safe and sound in regard to this relationship.

Being able to visualize this long-evolving dynamic in an organized way gives me the clarity to approach other relationships that I now need to study more closely.

Now, I’m approaching a young woman. She’s in a misogynistic relationship—against her will—trapped in a group dynamic that pushes her to stay, even though it benefits only her partner. He retains dominance because he hasn’t been subjected to guilt or rejection like she has. She’s had to face rejection from both families involved in the relationship, while he remained accepted by both. She reached out to me over a year ago, seeking a transition—a way out of that group and into something with me. And I believe we’re making progress. Based on my observations, that relationship is doomed to end over time. I feel hopeful, knowing she’ll be safe and free to grow. And I’ll have the honor of witnessing the evolution of a masterpiece—human freedom and diversification.

I used to think her relationship mirrored the one I had with my father. But it turns out to be the opposite. In her case, she fought hard to maintain the relationship and ended up rejected by both families. In my situation, I fought for justice against the abuse from both my mother and stepmother. I didn’t necessarily depend on my father’s support, though at times he offered some. In the first case, neither of us were accepted. In the second, I wasn’t. That part mirrors her story. But I wasn’t fighting to keep the relationship with my father—I felt that relationship was already safe. If I go deeper, in the first case I was defending my father from my mother’s abuse, which even he couldn’t justify. In the second, with my stepmother, the conflict began because I wanted to prevent her from interfering in our relationship. In that sense, the girl and I are similar.

When I reconnected with her, after her ordeal with the two families, she was conditioned into blind obedience to her partner—much like I was with my father. She expressed this openly, and like me, she got involved in activities that exercised the mind and helped her move forward. That happened with my support. With those experiences, I began to take back ground that had been dominated by her partner—just as I had done with my father. And so, she ended up under my influence, although I never ruled out the possibility of her reconnecting with her partner. So maybe it doesn’t make sense to say I helped her leave that relationship—she had already left, even if I was physically beside her.

Then, once I regained those points of influence, the only thing left for her was to stop letting her partner control those same points. But that doesn’t happen just by distancing—it takes initiative to reclaim them. That’s how autonomy is achieved. With my father, I reclaimed those points and then learned how to hold influence without using it—creating balance and empathy. With her, the goal would be for her to reclaim influence and apply it to her partner, to reach a similar empathetic point. That would create enough separation to finally end that relationship. This reclaiming process could be seen as her learning from my way of doing things.

So now the question is: When will she decide to take that step? Should I wait for her? What do I do in the meantime? Based on this reasoning, she needs to take the initiative. That’s why the question arises—and that’s why I must wait. But since I have no idea what her current situation is, I also need to assume she’s not present. So I must continue with my life as if she’s not there, because I lack the context. I don’t know when she’ll reclaim those points, or under what conditions.

At this stage in my life, I can’t factor her into the equation. I have to assume she’s no longer part of it. There’s no continuation—nothing more to do for now. Any thoughts I have about her current life would only be speculation, born from assumptions that don’t belong to me. And it’s precisely from that place that she must begin again, if she chooses to.

I've been obsessing about this for a long time.

Why? Why are we alive? Why give life when it's easily taken away?

I don't want to die, that's scary. But I know that it's because that I've been given life that I'm scared of it being taken away.

I still have a long way to get there, but sometimes, I think really hard about it and it gives me this ugly feeling in the chest.

I want to believe that there's something beyond death but I just can't do it. How do people not think about their short lives? How can they live not thinking about their inevitable death? Because it gives me pressure, it pressures me to HAVE to leave something on earh, something that proves that I was once alive, something like a big invention, to be famous, inspire people.

Please, someone, anyone, make living forever possible. I don't want to leave my life, I want to stay here, read everything that exists, do everything that it's possible to do. I don't want to leave incomplete, without those I love, without the things I like to do.

Have you ever just sat in your bed or just laid there thinking, "Damn." Like your life is so exhausting. I am in this friend group with about 5 girls. They are all really funny and pretty and super athletic. It used to be in its prime last year around this time. The friend group hasn't stayed the same though, and this is where it kind of gets tricky. I used to be friends with another friend group before this and the reason I left was this insane "it's just a joke" type of words people would throw at me. And that main source of it was a girl, let's call her Sarah. I got so mentally drained I stopped going to school. After this, I switched over to the friend group I am in and my life has been going great. Until, Sarah joined. Yes. Sarah joined a month ago. First, looking at her reposts seemed like she has changed and has regretted it. But that was not the case. She keeps on "it's just a joke" and keeps on making me look bad and makes me feel really bad about myself. And it's worse because all these jokes she makes are funny to everyone else. Like when she's doing it to someone else, I find it really funny. Even though she still does that the most to me, nobody really seem to care. They just find everything she says funny and thinks she's a great fun person to be around. Remind you, my friends are NOT bad people, they care about me, they make me laugh at my lowest. But Sarah really seems to be good at manipulating people. What would you do?

I hate school. It stresses me the heck out and I get social anxiety so when I have a presentation or something I either fake sick or just start crying. me and my friend both struggle with some mental health problems and it does NOT help in school at all. EVER. anyways school is really hard and its 6 freaking hours which is so so so so so so so long to just sit there and learnnnnnn

G'day. I have been feeling absolutely abysmal because

I can't move on. I liked someone, he made me feel as if he likes me, but later on got in a relationship with his girl bestfriend and somehow we keep bumping into each other at random places. And now I can't seem to move on. I can't have a closure as I don't have his number or insta.

Ping

Ping

Ping

Make it stop

Ping

Ping

Ping

Ping

Another wave of messages come through

You throw your phone across the room

Shattered and broken

Yet still turns on

Ping

Ping

Ping

Another load of messages

Overloading your brain

You swipe open your phone

Wincing as the broken glass slices your finger

You open your messages

"Traitor"

"Cheat"

"Liar"

"Fake"

You switch off your phone

You can't do it

Ping

Ping

Ping

You burst into tears

Why do they hate me so?

i dunno how much longer i can keep doin this. every day feels like a repeat of the last one, same desk, same fake smiles, same pressure that keeps building and building and no one even talks about it. it’s like everyone at my job is running on fumes, but we all pretend like we're fine, like if we stop even for one sec someone else will take our spot. we're not working to grow or create anymore, we're working to survive. to not get fired. to not be the next one in that “meeting” room where they tell you your position is being "restructured." i see people cryin in their cars before walkin in, people stayin late even when their eyes are red and they got kids waitin at home. and me? i’m no different. i wake up with this knot in my chest every single morning, scared to check my emails, scared my name’ll be the next one called. i work through lunch, i say yes to everything even when i’m drowning. nd still, i feel like i’m not doin enough.

i used to have dreams man, like real ones. i thought i’d work hard, make a name for myself, maybe even lead a team one day. now? now i just dream about sleep. about quiet. about not feelin like i’m gonna snap if one more damn task lands on my plate. i can’t even remember the last time i laughed for real, or felt proud of anything i did. i just feel numb most of the time. or angry. or scared. i don’t talk to my friends anymore, i cancel plans, i ignore calls from my mom cause i don’t got the energy to pretend i'm ok. my brain don’t even shut off at night. i lay there thinking about what i didn’t finish, what i should’ve said in that meeting, whether my manager secretly hates me. nd then the alarm goes off and it starts all over again. i feel like i’m losing pieces of myself every damn day.

the people here... they’re all in survival mode. no one shares real thoughts anymore. everyone smiles but it’s all surface level. we’re competing silently, watching each other like hawks, pretending to be “team players” while lowkey hoping someone else messes up first. it’s toxic but no one says anything, cause no one wants to be seen as the weak one. and i feel like i’m goin crazy cause i can see it for what it is and yet i still show up and play the game. even when my body’s screamin to rest. even when my mind's all foggy. i drink like 3 coffees a day just to function, sometimes i skip meals, and still i get told i need to “show more initiative.” what the hell do they want from me?? blood?? i’m already runnin on empty. they want perfect robots, not humans. but i’m not a robot. i’m tired. i’m burnt out. and i feel like no one cares, like even if i collapsed at my desk, someone would just step over me and take my workload.

i don’t kno how to fix it. i don’t kno if it’s me or the job or the whole system but something’s wrong. i shouldn't feel this broken at my age. i shouldn't be questioning my sanity just cause of work. i don’t wanna be this bitter, exhausted version of myself forever. i miss when life had color, when i didn’t feel like cryin at the sound of another slack notification. i need something to change, but i’m scared. scared to leave cause what if it’s the same somewhere else? scared to speak up cause i might get fired. scared to admit i’m not okay cause that would mean facing how deep this all goes. so i keep goin, one day at a time, pretending i’m holdin it together when really... i feel like i’m losin my mind. and i don’t kno how much longer i can fake it.

[Translated from Spanish. Reminder: IIWIARS is English only]

I feel like I never want to go back to my aunt’s place again. That woman doesn’t accept me for who I am. She tries to erase me—erase how I really am—just to protect her own image. She’s done it before, and now she’s doing it again. She’s still fighting that same battle, and I can’t take it anymore. I just want her out of my life. Honestly, I wish I’d never even met her.

If she thinks that helping us gives her the right to meddle in our lives, she’s completely mistaken. That’s how I feel—invaded. Ever since I stayed with her, I’ve felt strange, emotionally wounded, and completely unmotivated. I’ve been fighting to not let myself get dragged down by whatever it is she left in me—this form of disguised violence, pretending to be innocent. It seems like she enjoys it, and that terrifies me. I don’t think she even knows what she’s saying—she just acts without thinking. She believes a smile is enough to fix everything.

This woman scares me. I simply don’t want to see her again. Nor her friend. They’re strange people. They want to change everything about you and frame it like it’s “for your own good”—but it goes as far as emotional abuse. What kind of mentality is that? Why did I have to witness this? And why, of all families, did this one have to be mine? Why couldn’t I have ended up in a different one, for God’s sake?

Why, of all people, was she the one available to care for me after surgery? The moment I walked into her house, with my bags in hand, I felt like I was walking straight into hell. These people are experts at shutting you down when you try to speak about what’s hurting you. When I tried to explain this to my psychiatrist, I felt like she looked at me like I was crazy. Honestly, I’m afraid my aunt will try to set me up—make me explain what hurts me just to twist it around and blame it on my traumas or mental health, like I’m the problem.

I feel helpless dealing with the aftermath of these people. No one around me is supporting me. I feel absolutely awful.

i married my husband almost 2 years ago but things just got worse and worse with time and he became pretty controlling so I've been working on becoming more financially independent since due to a very complicated situation I ended up depending on him. In the meantime, I have developed strong feelings for a coworker and the other day he asked me out, since I'm married and my husband works at the same place ( which coworker knows) I chicken out and said no because I was scared of other people that know my husband will hear us. I asked for his number so I would be able to text him in private and he gave me his number and said he was exited to text with me, next day when I texted him he was very dry and ended up leaving me on seen and I feel so devastated cause I really liked him.

My sister is 3 years younger than me, and she's basically getting everything she wants with basically no consequences. when I was younger than her age, I had to be self reliant because our parents were busy working as we had no home and had to stay in a relative's house- we all had to sleep in one room, and I didn't even have many personal belongings- I had to prioritise taking care of myself- ironing my uniform, making my own lunch and breakfast, straightening my own hair, and having to walk 40 minutes everyday to school when we no longer had a car- even when we did, I was often berated by my dad for being slow because I was late and he had to drop me off- but that was because I didn't have any food for school. This was when I was 12- I don't really think it's a big as it's important to be self reliant when you're older, but the thing is, my parent keep coddling my sister to the point where she doesn't want to do anything for herself for her own, honestly selfish, reasons. She doesn't do her own laundry, style her hair, make her own breakfast or lunch because she can't be bothered to- this was by her own admission. She's 15 turning 16. She also doesn't clean up after making a mess. She studies in the living room- which is fine, obviously- but this now means that the entire living room is a mess of papers- even when we clean up, we can't do anything about them because she'll literally get so angry and starts to get aggressive and messes up the room if she can't find anything - which is annoying since I'm the one who has to clean the living room. She can also be very judgemental and rude to me about my interests and has called me cringe if I'm interested in things she doesn't like. She just doesn't feel like a considerate person at all. Honestly, she's the main reason why I'm excited to move out for university because I feel like I'll be able to live my own life- like I won't have to sacrifice my self worth just for her. I'm also hoping that she'll learn to mature and calm down as sometimes her temperament scares our mum off too

Of course, becoming a teen theirs responsibility. And always feeling the pressure to get a job from your parents. Anyways, im 15 and what are some jobs where I don’t have to work in a musty fast food place and being a cashier. (Counting money sucks😞) And im also introverted, but that won’t stop me from getting a job.

I feel like I need to be cautious around a woman I’ve observed to be prejudiced. She feels almost like family to me, yet I sense that her prejudices keep her tightly bound—and although she tries to break free from them, it seems like they’re stronger than she is.

She’s a deeply religious person, and that terrifies me. Her way of enforcing rules—under the guise of "care"—comes across as imposing. I used to be like that too, but over time, I’ve distanced myself from that mindset.

Now I understand how others must have felt around me back then. She has a daughter—pretty, charming even—but the idea of being close to her, especially knowing who her mother is, makes me uneasy. I don’t know what secrets the daughter may be hiding, even though she presents herself as an open, accepting teenager. I feel like I can't step out of the mold they’ve placed me in, or else there’ll be trouble. Honestly, I think the wise thing for me to do is walk away from their lives. Now I understand how some girls used to feel about me.

It was nice to meet them, but under the weight of this devaluing energy, I can’t say I want them in my life. Their deep involvement in things like religion makes me feel like they’re rooted in a kind of worldview that demands change in others—to align with what they believe is right—while barely acknowledging other people’s principles. It feels suffocating. I’m scared they might try to change me, in a way that doesn’t let me come back to myself—just through guilt.

I sense that, because I’m easy to pull along, I come off as attractive to her daughter—and that she engages with me mostly out of family guilt, at least from what I can tell.

I met them when I bought coffee from them. That interaction with the woman left me feeling that her every gesture was rigid, almost mechanical. I know she tries to be kind and patient with others, but I don’t want to go any deeper—I don’t want to see her anger. They seem “too good to be true,” and I feel like running away, because one day the mask is going to drop.

What sort of assumptions might they be making—without even realizing—while thinking they’re just protecting me? I’m honestly worried that they could interpret my behavior as harmful. Right now, I’m uneasy because the woman didn’t reply to me. She saw a few of my posts, which held values opposite to hers, and then I saw something she shared about toxic people. I’m afraid she was talking about me. I hate how she makes me feel—like who I am doesn’t align with the way she idealizes me. It makes me feel like I depend on her approval, and that’s a cage. That dependency brings on this anxiety.

[Translated from Spanish. Reminder: IIWIARS is English only]

These are people you’d want to test—just to be sure their helpful spirit isn’t being exploited. But within that family, it’s been easy to keep things safe as long as I’ve stayed at a distance. Still, I don’t know if there are unspoken lines I’ve crossed without realizing. Honestly, I feel like I’m walking through a minefield.

I want to get away from this family. They present themselves as tolerant, but their roots and rigidity make me feel like this is headed for something terrible—silent, hard to name, and even harder to escape once I’m in too deep. I now understand exactly why my friends used to avoid me. Running into someone from my past has turned into a waking nightmare—something that feels just about to begin. I never thought I’d feel this way about myself.

And what’s worse, I think they may be entirely unconscious of the harm they could cause. They might normalize my changes—as long as they lead to what they see as ideal. They’d applaud every part of the process, even when I’m clearly lost or hurting. It’s like they want me to fail just to guide me back toward who they want me to be.

I feel the risk of being erased. Maybe I’m just confused—but the burden of trusting that they’re not what they seem feels too heavy. Maybe that’s why I’m saying all these things, about how they appear to be—things I hope they wouldn’t actually do. Sure, I bet they’re different when you really talk to them, but the level of emotional effort they expect from others feels crushing and guilt-inducing. That alone makes me feel trapped. I’m scared I’ll test the waters just out of habit—and get stuck.

Honestly? Now I understand why no one wanted to date me before.