You ever feel like things were out of place once in your life. Like things that happened in the past, made you who you are today. It made you a stronger person than before. Things in your past can make you a stronger person. I believe in that 100 percent and I’ll tell you why.

Like any person I went through a lot of bad things in my life. Sometimes I didn’t know how I was going to make it through. But I did, in the words of someone famous “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. I fell in love, fell out of love, been to some dark places in my 16 years of living. I’m going to tell you guys about one.
 

 Like any young boy or girl I fell in love with someone. I fell hard for this someone; you can even say that person was “my first love”. I felt as though everything was perfect. I soon realized that nothing is what it seems not even with the one you love. After the first couple of months, things started downhill. We always argued about pointless things. Things were starting to get unhealthy.
 

 Soon or later our relationship started going downhill even more. Things started to get abusive. It started with simple teasing just playing around calling me ugly and talking about my weight. Then it was the unnecessary criticism towards me. Then it was the extra roughness. I sat there and took all of it because I felt that was the right thing to do. I never really seen that as signs of abuse, it wasn’t what I thought abuse was. I didn’t know until my friend told me we showed signs of verbal and physical abuse. One day when my friend and I went to health class we were coincidentally watching a movie that showed signs of being abused. The film made me very uncomfortable I knew the signs were there but I was in denial all the time. I stayed and that was a bad decision on my part because things were just getting worse.
 

Things got out of hand very fast after that. I became very insecure about myself and who I was in the relationship. He would basically do whatever he wanted and lie to my face about what he was doing. Honestly I was being naïve about everything. As time progressed on, he got harsher. It was harsher name calling like fat and stupid. Then it turned into that I would never amount to anything or graduate school. It hurt a lot to know he said those things to me. Nothing was good enough for him. Me being the person I was I stayed time after time.
   

It got to the point where things got physical. The grips got harder. He would slap me, but not in front of people. It was always behind closed doors. He told people that I was crazy and none of those things happened but I know it did because nobody ever forgets that. It got so bad that the person who was getting abused became the abuser.
 

I got so fed up that I would get angry. The anger and sadness took over and clouded my mind all the time. I discovered that I was becoming dangerous by taking out my frustration on that person. I got the help I needed as soon as possible. Most people say that therapy doesn’t work but it helped me through everything. It wasn’t an overnight transformation it took some time to be all right again. I didn’t have to hide behind the anger because I discovered that it wasn’t me, it never was. I thank God for my therapist and my friends because without them I wouldn’t be here.
   

That person and I don’t talk anymore. There’s more to that story but that’s for another time. I wrote this for Teen Ink because this could inspire someone to get help. Or help someone who went through this. This is part of my story and it made me stronger.