13.
“There were the ‘usual’ things that led to divorce. For years, I’d beg for him to talk to me, go to therapy, do things I was interested in, and more. The final straw happened slowly, but gave me enough time to get my life together to support myself. He told me ‘Don’t bother coming home’ on two occasions. First, when I was going to Ireland with my family and he took it as if I were leaving him. In his ‘defense,’ I had recently said how unhappy I was. The second time was when I got a tattoo in Ireland. If he did it a third time, I promised myself to get out. He said it a third time when I was visiting a friend and didn’t answer the phone.”
“I was done. I quit caring, quit begging, and stopped investing in us. I focused purely on school and my career for two years in order to move out. I finished school, passed my VTNE on the first try, took a two-week vacation and moved out two months later.”
—Anonymous, 31, Tacoma, Washington
