Whep, the cat's out of the bag now. My (paternal) aunts know about my situation, as do most of my close cousins. And amazingly, I am not judged at all. I thought I would be embarrassed and ostracized. Instead, I was met with understanding and support.
We traveled to our hometown last weekend to attend one of our uncle's babang luksa (a kind of memorial), and on the way we caught up with each other. I already confided with one of my cousins months before and I sort of knew she'd tell my aunt (her mom) and her sister, and my aunt would tell her sister (my other aunt) so when my other aunt did not act surprised when we discussed how my life had been lately, I figured most of them knew.
I haven't really been keeping it a secret - I just didn't want people to discuss and speculate about the situation and make it worse. In any case, perhaps normalizing what I did, which was leave and not tolerate a bad situation, goes a long way in making people understand that neglect and emotional abuse is never okay.
Whatever they think of me, I still think everyone's support is a blessing. I just hope I am worthy of their faith.
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