In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present
Being labelled an ‘alcoholics daughter’ comes with being labelled with the stigma of shame, angst and embarrassment – the feeling of being different from others. That being said, with this I learnt maturity, caring for others and understanding that there is a person behind the bottle; addiction is a real thing for all involved. Not just the person with dependency issues but the people who also love, support and see this person harm themselves. Above all else I learnt that from darkness there is always light. To ensure that every battle we face is a lesson and we proceed to learn and teach others of this. We must learn that every lesson we endure, albeit hard and sometimes unfairly so, it enables us to grow beyond our years now leads us to be a maturer being. I now see that all lessons must be lived and learnt and, in a way, we are privileged to have learnt this early.
When my father passed I was 15 I viewed this wisdom to be a hindrance, a stolen treasure of a childhood I could not now experience. I also felt conflicted as I felt a sense of relief from a passing that hurt so much. I no longer had to feel the pressure of caring and worrying for someone else at that age when everyone else seemed so carefree. It is important to remember there is no ‘right’ way to feel.
But as we learn from the hardest of times, wisdom is born. This maturity and understanding of hardships readied me for the fight to better myself, for the understanding to help others, to work hard and know what I wanted from life. We may have hardships from an early age but that does not define who we are as people, we are our own persons and we can be whoever we wish to be.
Remember to be kind always as above all else, we understand of the internal battle many people face daily that the outward world can’t see.
