Seven years ago, I grabbed whatever clothes I could get, my wallet, and anything I could think of and left Memphis in the dead of night for a new life in New Orleans.
My reasoning for coming to New Orleans, was because I had no relatives here and more importantly, I knew my mom would never set foot in this city.
Not to mention that I wasn’t about to allow my mom to control me the same way my grandmother controlled her life when I was growing up. I didn’t want that life for me as I got older. I saw how my mom and grandmother argued when my mom would come home from work on weekends and how mind-numbing it was.
My mom tried desperately to do the same thing to me when I became an adult, which I tried to escape numerous times while I lived in Memphis. In fact, when I lived in Midtown Memphis, my mom would call my roommate’s phone number to look for me when my phone would be disconnected or something to that effect, leaving unhinged voicemails.
No seriously, that happened.
The breaking point for me in regards to my relationship with my mom came on Monday afternoon.
Over a year after I got chewed out for not coming home when Hurricane Ida hit on Facebook and almost a month after my mom got out of the hospital, I got chewed out on the phone by my mom. It was so bizarre and out of left field I had no clue what to think or say. But I will say that most of the shit that that was said was pretty fucked up to say the least.
After I got off the phone, I talked to my friends Brett and Dave and then texted one of my good friends from college. Then I thought about what my mom said in terms of me not standing up to her.
“If you can’t stand up to me, who can you stand up to?” she asked me.
After mulling it over for a bit, I went to my Google Voice app and blocked my mom’s number from my phone.
That’s right, I finally decided to stand up and say that disrespect towards me from my mom is enough.
Everyone always say, “Your mom is just set in her ways.”
Nope. Nope. Nope.
My mom is set in her ways because she doesn’t want to change. Being set in your ways doesn’t fly with me. You still have breath in your body and in your right mind.
You can change.
You can be better.
You just don’t want to.