Hi Arctic,
What are we twins or something? You sound just like me. I never listened to the wisdom of others. I always had to test it myself. As I've gotten older, I'm getting so much better with that so that's something to look forward to.
You wrote about your experience so well. Thank you for sharing that. It helped me.
I don't know but underneath all that you sound like a positive person. Only a positive person would look at situations like you came up to and would say it can be different. I'm like that. Unfortunately I found out that some warnings should be heeded. Like the ones that involve drinking...and bad relationships.
It's called experience Arctic. You have it now. Take all that experience and focus on the lesson you can learn from it. What works and what doesn't. That is one good thing from this. I know that for me, I never have to question it again. I know from experience life is better when I don't drink. I've tried it both ways. Now I know.
You can do it! Just think about what you learned from this and move forward. Change what you can and keep the optimistic view that everything will be great and positive for the things you can't change.
You probably don't feel optimistic now but I would like to think you are. I want you to see all that you learned have hope it will work out and make you stronger. That's the optimist in me.
It's a new day.