Moving to Ohio was a big change for me. I was told I would be staying with my dad for the summer. I didn't even know i was going to have to live here, until my mom called me up one night and told me that I was going to have to stay. I was devastated. I couldn't believe that she was making me stay in Ohio with my dad, knowing how much I disliked him and my step mom. At first she said I would only have to stay for my junior year, but she eventually said I should just finish out school here. I really didn't want to stay here and it wasn't just because I missed my mom.
After living with my dad for a while things went down hill for me. I was so unhappy, but when i expressed how I felt, someone, usually my step mom would say that I was pretending to feel that way for attention. She even once said that i was coughing for attention and tried to make me go to bed. She would talk about me to my siblings and say things like "Anna doesn't do the dishes right," and I only know this because my little sister would repeat these things back to me. Living with this for the last to years taught me to avoid conflict whenever possible and to not take things too personally. Because now I can see that if someone feels the need to constantly put someone else down, they obviously have some issues of their own that they need to work through. Moving to Ohio changed my how I view other people and how I deal with unkind people.
Wow! Ouch.
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