By Claudia, TeenSource Peer Educator
For a long time, I thought I had the best relationship. I used to think that getting insulted or asked to do things I didn't want to was normal. But it wasn't. I began to feel insecure about myself and always felt like I had to accept my boyfriend's actions. It took getting hurt repeatedly and moving schools for me to realize that I was in an unhealthy relationship.
All this pain made me close up so much and I put my guard up for the next relationship. When I started a new relationship, my boyfriend and I hardly communicated. I would feel jealous of anything. Anything that he messed up on I would make a huge deal about it. I just didn’t want to go through the same things over again. I realized a bit too late that I was pushing this guy away. When he finally decided to leave the relationship, in which we both were hurting each other, I suffered. I thought, "how I could let my past affect my happiness?"
We both decided to give it another try and work on it all. We worked on communicating more and on accepting each other’s flaws. I’m happy to say this guy has turned into my best friend. He accepts me for me and respects me. He has not once pressured me to do what I don’t want. I guess we sometimes need to realize that we can’t carry on with the pain of the past - we have to learn from it to continue on. We need to learn to respect ourselves and love ourselves and never let someone else bring you down or pressure you to do things you aren’t ready for.
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