Listening to the Wild Woman

Romantic addiction. It’s a pretty common symptom of childhood sexual abuse. It’s a characteristic where even the potential for a romantic relationship basically defines your whole existence. You want someone to love you, need someone to love you, and every person you meet could be The One. Like, you’re in 5th grade and a new kid starts school and has the same science class as you. He could be The One. You don’t even know him or who he is, but you have to find out if he likes you. He doesn’t like you, he doesn’t know you. He is busy living his life. But you, being addicted to romance, have already come up with ten different ways to ‘casually’ say hello. What happens next is this stranger starts to influence your whole life. You find out what things he likes, and you start to like them. You change your lunch routine so that he might see you gracefully dining on lettuce. (just lettuce, girls don’t eat. That’s a whole ‘nother conversation tho.) You practice writing your name and his n...