hings started to get better. We started going out with friends and I thought he had changed.

We had been together six months and he asked me to marry him on New Years Eve, I said yes. I was sure it was love. I know now I was scared of being alone if I said no.

It wasn't long before I would regret making that decision. It took some time before I was well enough to get out of that abusive rel

I had asked myself these questions so many times. I thought it was my fault. I thought if only I didn't make him so mad. If I just kept my mouth shut he wouldn't hit me. Why couldn't I just keep my opinions to myself? I can't believe that I was stupid enough to let him hurt me and not do anything about it.

I had watched so many of my friends live this way and even protected them from their abusers but I couldn't do it for myself. We had a whirlwind relationship; we both had just come out of other relationships and were hurting emotionally.

I know now my self-esteem was at the lowest point it had ever been and it has been pretty low sometimes. I have since found out you attract what you are. I guess I was attracting pain and hurt.

We went out for lunch and dinner, we watched movies and hung out with his friends. We were inseparable. I pushed everything and everyone else out of my life. I had let him become my whole world. I couldn't see I was doing the same thing I had warned my friends not to do when they got into relationships.

Things started to change and he started to get mad at me for silly things. I should have seen the signs. I was so insecure and alone that I just wanted somebody who would love me.

The first time he hurt me he had been angry in traffic. He tried to throw me out of a moving car. I stayed with him though and we moved in together three months later. He threw our table and chairs down the stairs the day we moved in together, I should left then but I stayed. I thought it was the stress of moving.

After a couple of months of living together things started to get better. We started going out with friends and I thought he had changed.

We had been together six months and he asked me to marry him on New Years Eve, I said yes. I was sure it was love. I know now I was scared of being alone if I said no.

It wasn't long before I would regret making that decision. It took some time before I was well enough to get out of that abusive rela

s but I couldn't do it for myself. We had a whirlwind relationship; we both had just come out of other relationships and were hurting emotionally.

I know now my self-esteem was at the lowest point it had ever been and it has been pretty low sometimes. I have since found out you attract what you are. I guess I was attracting pain and hurt.

We went out for lunch and dinner, we watched movies and hung out with his friends. We were inseparable. I pushed everything and everyone else out of my life. I had let him become my whole world. I couldn't see I was doing the same thing I had warned my friends not to do when they got into relationships.

Things started to change and he started to get mad at me for silly things. I should have seen the signs. I was so insecure and alone that I just wanted somebody who would love me.

The first time he hurt me he had been angry in traffic. He tried to throw me out of a moving car. I stayed with him though and we moved in together three months later. He threw our table and chairs down the stairs the day we moved in together, I should left then but I stayed. I thought it was the stress of moving.

After a couple of months of living together things started to get better. We started going out with friends and I thought he had changed.

We had been together six months and he asked me to marry him on New Years Eve, I said yes. I was sure it was love. I know now I was scared of being alone if I said no.

It wasn't long before I would regret making that decision. It took some time before I was well enough to get out of that abusive rel

nd hung out with his friends. We were inseparable. I pushed everything and everyone else out of my life. I had let him become my whole world. I couldn't see I was doing the same thing I had warned my friends not to do when they got into relationships.

Things started to change and he started to get mad at me for silly things. I should have seen the signs. I was so insecure and alone that I just wanted somebody who would love me.

The first time he hurt me he had been angry in traffic. He tried to throw me out of a moving car. I stayed with him though and we moved in together three months later. He threw our table and chairs down the stairs the day we moved in together, I should left then but I stayed. I thought it was the stress of moving.

After a couple of months of living together things started to get better. We started going out with friends and I thought he had changed.

We had been together six months and he asked me to marry him on New Years Eve, I said yes. I was sure it was love. I know now I was scared of being alone if I said no.

It wasn't long before I would regret making that decision. It took some time before I was well enough to get out of that abusive rel

nted somebody who would love me.

The first time he hurt me he had been angry in traffic. He tried to throw me out of a moving car. I stayed with him though and we moved in together three months later. He threw our table and chairs down the stairs the day we moved in together, I should left then but I stayed. I thought it was the stress of moving.

After a couple of months of living together things started to get better. We started going out with friends and I thought he had changed.

We had been together six months and he asked me to marry him on New Years Eve, I said yes. I was sure it was love. I know now I was scared of being alone if I said no.

It wasn't long before I would regret making that decision. It took some time before I was well enough to get out of that abusive rel

hings started to get better. We started going out with friends and I thought he had changed.

We had been together six months and he asked me to marry him on New Years Eve, I said yes. I was sure it was love. I know now I was scared of being alone if I said no.

It wasn't long before I would regret making that decision. It took some time before I was well enough to get out of that abusive relationship. I had to see that I was a worthwhile person and that nobody deserves to be abused.

I had to hurt just long enough to want to change myself and my life. Today I can look back on it and realize that I have learned a lot for what I went through. I am a stronger person for surviving the experience. It has made me believe in my inner voice and now I listen to its warnings where before I wouldn't.

I am free now to love and be love and not be a hostage of my insecurities.