Member-only story
Confessions of a Teenage Nobody
My journey to becoming a somebody
I never got to say a proper goodbye to my sunflower-patterned quilt cover and curtains, the red bunk bed that I’d personally picked out, or the Hanson and Leonardo DiCaprio posters that adorned my walls.
I was on the verge of becoming a teenager when I had to leave all my possessions behind.
My parents’ separation had reached a nasty place and my dad’s behaviour was spiralling further into depression with him intent on bringing his children along on the devastating ride.
The solution? Mum, my sisters and I moved to a new home situated two hours away.
It only made my father more desperate to hold onto us, but ended in him pushing us further away.
The start of my teenage years at a new school with new friends ended up being the time that I needed to have a long break from my father.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, those possessions I’d left behind, I’d never see again.
It wasn’t the things that mattered. It was that this happened at a time when I was starting to experiment and figure out what I liked and didn’t like. I was starting to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be.
