My sister and her husband are away for their anniversary (YEA!!! CONGRATS!!!), so my niece and nephew are staying with my parents. I hung out with my niece for a few hours today and then went to my parents house to eat dinner with them all. 

As I sat on the couch watching tv I felt my anxiety rising. Similar to how I sometimes feel at my sister’s house (or anyone’s house really). It is SO loud. Everything is so loud. Loud talking, loud laughing, loud tv, loud chewing and really loud walking … I mean stomping. So much stomping.

Every time I am at someones else I think – why are they stomping so much? Why can’t they just walk quietly? Take your shoes off, they are. Put socks on, they are. There is nothing that quiets the stomping. The loud, pounding stomps throughout the house. 

Tonight I realized I have not lived in a home with some else that walked in 5+ years, it has been 5 years since I lived with someone that “stomped”, 5 YEARS?!?!?!?! How is that possible? 

The truth is they aren’t stomping. They aren’t loud. They aren’t talking, laughing, chewing or playing loud. I am just used to the quiet. I have lived so long in the quiet, in the silence.

It makes me sad. I used to love the laughing and noise. I loved being around people and having people around me and now … now it gives me anxiety and makes me uncomfortable. It shouldn’t be that way. 

For a long time I’ve had anxiety at people’s homes, when lots of people are at my home  and around large groups of people and now I realize why. I haven’t had that in so long. And that silence, although deafening and heartbreaking, is my normal. 

Knowing is half the battle – isn’t that what “they” say. 

Wish me luck at family dinner the next two nights! hahahaha

– xoxo Victoria

P.S. I am grateful to spend time with my family and anyone that invites me over, I’m just sharing something that I realized tonight!