I'm still in touch with someone I went to middle and high school with. Both their parents died when they were in their early 20s, essentially from complications of mental illness. In one conversation, I think they said something like: I really wish more people understood mental illness in the 70s and 80s, and there had been real help for us.
The abuse you describe was so common. I didn't realize it until much later that most girls were mean and surly to nearly-silent me likely because of abuse at home and at school.
Aww, Dex, that is so sad about your friend! I realize now that what I'm writing about, what I have always written about, is resilience. I had great early years because I didn't understand the depth of what my grandmother had done - she parentally kidnapped me from my father's house shortly after my mom died. My dad had hired Nessie, a nurse, to take care of me. My aunt Donna & I found Nessie's letters to my grandmother begging her to bring me back. My dad, aunt & uncle, no one had the guts to take my grandmother on. She was terrifying. I'm not sure how to write about it that wouldn't just make people think I'm adult Carrie and leave it at that. I'm not adult Carrie.
No, you aren't Carrie. Maybe you're what Carrie would have been if she'd had more resilience and a friend. Innocence is protective, up to a point. My experience in school was that some kids turned to adolescent anger as a source of strength, and this got them through, and gave them an energy they could put to something constructive. I was as quiet as possible. Only a few had revenge fantasies, and most of those turned into parodies. I wrote a roman a clef parody with the major players as farm animals.
So, you're one that made it out in more ways that one.
I'm still in touch with someone I went to middle and high school with. Both their parents died when they were in their early 20s, essentially from complications of mental illness. In one conversation, I think they said something like: I really wish more people understood mental illness in the 70s and 80s, and there had been real help for us.
The abuse you describe was so common. I didn't realize it until much later that most girls were mean and surly to nearly-silent me likely because of abuse at home and at school.
Aww, Dex, that is so sad about your friend! I realize now that what I'm writing about, what I have always written about, is resilience. I had great early years because I didn't understand the depth of what my grandmother had done - she parentally kidnapped me from my father's house shortly after my mom died. My dad had hired Nessie, a nurse, to take care of me. My aunt Donna & I found Nessie's letters to my grandmother begging her to bring me back. My dad, aunt & uncle, no one had the guts to take my grandmother on. She was terrifying. I'm not sure how to write about it that wouldn't just make people think I'm adult Carrie and leave it at that. I'm not adult Carrie.
No, you aren't Carrie. Maybe you're what Carrie would have been if she'd had more resilience and a friend. Innocence is protective, up to a point. My experience in school was that some kids turned to adolescent anger as a source of strength, and this got them through, and gave them an energy they could put to something constructive. I was as quiet as possible. Only a few had revenge fantasies, and most of those turned into parodies. I wrote a roman a clef parody with the major players as farm animals.
So, you're one that made it out in more ways that one.