Beginning of 2013, when the ex "confronted" me about the fact that she no longer wanted to put off having children, the arrangement we came to was that I would go into therapy to figure things out and we would return to the issue in six months. (I had been on antidepressants regularly since 2008, irregularly before, but had never stuck with a therapist for any extended period of time.) After six months, I hadn't really "figured things out" with regards to kids, so we broke up in July 2013. But I've been seeing the same therapist the whole time, for four and a half years now. It's kind of the longest relationship I've ever had with a woman. Of course, I pay her. But hey, it's better than nothing.
But more seriously, I honestly don't know where I'd be today if not for the enormous strides I've made in therapy over the last four years. I don't know if I ever would have stayed in school, stayed functional, stayed working toward my goals. I largely don't think of myself as depressed these days, something that I hadn't previously been able to say since like elementary school. I'm still vulnerable to it and still have to fight against it sometimes, but it doesn't dominate my life the way it used to. So something good has come out of all this.
Like, I often think that, as great and mature and fulfilling as my relationship with the ex was, it was all kind of predicated on the stupid choice two young 20-somethings made. It didn't matter to us that our stances on kids differed, because how could we have possibly known that we would fall in love, move in, and build a life together? We were just infatuated and enjoying ourselves. So maybe we both would have been better off had we never gotten together at all. Not had those experiences. Not had to make that ****ty choice four years later. She could have met the right guy and started a family sooner. And I would have been saved the last four years of regret and pain.
But is that really better. Would I be the person I am today, in the place I am, doing what I'm doing, invested in this new version of myself as I am, without all the steps I took along the way, all those steps I took with the ex, and all the steps I've taken since her. Seems unlikely.
But anyway I'm going to go find some ****ty time travel movie I can watch to give myself the opportunity to mull over decisions I can't possibly unmake.
But more seriously, I honestly don't know where I'd be today if not for the enormous strides I've made in therapy over the last four years. I don't know if I ever would have stayed in school, stayed functional, stayed working toward my goals. I largely don't think of myself as depressed these days, something that I hadn't previously been able to say since like elementary school. I'm still vulnerable to it and still have to fight against it sometimes, but it doesn't dominate my life the way it used to. So something good has come out of all this.
Like, I often think that, as great and mature and fulfilling as my relationship with the ex was, it was all kind of predicated on the stupid choice two young 20-somethings made. It didn't matter to us that our stances on kids differed, because how could we have possibly known that we would fall in love, move in, and build a life together? We were just infatuated and enjoying ourselves. So maybe we both would have been better off had we never gotten together at all. Not had those experiences. Not had to make that ****ty choice four years later. She could have met the right guy and started a family sooner. And I would have been saved the last four years of regret and pain.
But is that really better. Would I be the person I am today, in the place I am, doing what I'm doing, invested in this new version of myself as I am, without all the steps I took along the way, all those steps I took with the ex, and all the steps I've taken since her. Seems unlikely.
But anyway I'm going to go find some ****ty time travel movie I can watch to give myself the opportunity to mull over decisions I can't possibly unmake.
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