Score |
3
Diaries of An Abandoned Kid.
<p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p>I was eight when my mother left.</p><p><br/></p><p>She didn't tell me she was leaving forever. She only packed a few clothes into a bag and said, “I'll be back.”</p><p><br/></p><p>I believed her.</p><p><br/></p><p>For the first few days, I waited by the window whenever I heard footsteps outside. Whenever a car stopped in front of the house, I ran out, hoping it was her.</p><p><br/></p><p>It wasn't.</p><p><br/></p><p>After some weeks, I stopped waiting.</p><p><br/></p><p>Nobody really explained why she left. Adults always had their own way of hiding painful things from children. They would lower their voices whenever I walked into the room, as if I was too young to understand that my mother was gone.</p><p><br/></p><p>I started learning how to live without her.</p><p><br/></p><p>At school, I watched other children complain about their mothers.</p><p><br/></p><p>“My mummy beat me this morning.”</p><p><br/></p><p>“My mummy refused to buy me biscuits.”</p><p><br/></p><p>I secretly wished I had those problems.</p><p><br/></p><p>At least, it meant their mothers were there.</p><p><br/></p><p>My grandmother took care of me. She tried her best, but there were some things even love couldn't replace. She couldn't answer the questions I carried in my heart.</p><p><br/></p><p>Why did Mummy leave?</p><p><br/></p><p>Was I not enough?</p><p><br/></p><p>Did I do something wrong?</p><p><br/></p><p>I never asked anyone.</p><p><br/></p><p>I became a quiet child. People thought I was naturally reserved, but they didn't know that I had learnt not to expect too much from people.</p><p><br/></p><p>Years later, my mother returned.</p><p><br/></p><p>By then, I had grown taller. I had learnt how to wash my clothes, cook my food and hide my sadness.</p><p><br/></p><p>She hugged me like she had only been gone for a few days.</p><p><br/></p><p>I wanted to ask her why she left.</p><p><br/></p><p>I wanted to tell her how many times I cried myself to sleep.</p><p><br/></p><p>But when she asked, “How have you been?”</p><p><br/></p><p>I simply smiled and said, “I've been fine.”</p><p><br/></p><p>Maybe that is what abandonment does to a child.</p><p><br/></p><p>It teaches you how to say I'm fine when you are anything but fine.</p><p><br/></p><p>Even now, I sometimes wonder if I would have been different if she had stayed.</p><p><br/></p><p>Maybe I would trust people more.</p><p><br/></p><p>Maybe I wouldn't be afraid of getting attached.</p><p><br/></p><p>Maybe I wouldn't always expect everyone I love to eventually leave.</p><p><br/></p><p>But I am learning that my mother's absence was never proof that I was difficult to love.</p><p><br/></p><p>I was only a child.</p><p><br/></p><p>And children should never have to learn how to survive the people who were supposed to stay.</p>
|
4
Other insights from The Voa
Referral Earning
Points-to-Coupons
Insights for you.
All that I gave
Oh, hey there!It's me... again...You know, There's so much I want to saySo much I want ...
332 views
52 upvotes
50 comments
Mapped
She has patches that look like continents no cartographer bothered to name.Her mother c...
223 views
35 upvotes
33 comments
Momma
The carriage bumped over the dirt road.“Momma, where am I going?”Her voice was tiny. He...
144 views
35 upvotes
36 comments
70
70Seventy is one of those numbers that seems to carry weight.Not because there's anythi...
184 views
37 upvotes
34 comments
That’s Everything
Look at me!I used to be a foot. Now I’m a fist. A clenched thing pushed into a satin b...
286 views
30 upvotes
27 comments
Comments