I spent far too long doing what other people wanted me to do in life than what I wanted. A major part of this was my relationship with my mom, she left my dad when I was like 4 or 5 and my dad maintained primary custody of me and my siblings thankfully. I only got to see my mom every other weekend and she often spent that time drunk with her friends. I thought if I just tried harder she would want to do more together. I tried to do the things she wanted me to do in life even when I didn’t care for them. I spent a lot of wasted time on things for her and in the end it didn’t matter. It took me 30 years to finally realize she just doesn’t really care about me and never really did. She always said she loved me and cared for me but her actions never showed it.

The straw that broke the camels back was her voting for Trump. I am trans and my wife is a school teacher at a school primarily for immigrant families. We were at dinner and complaining about the election results and she was all defensive and reassuring that this would be a good thing. I flat out asked her if she voted for him and she just refused to answer the question but it was obvious she did. I blocked her and we haven’t spoken since. She did send a birthday card saying that one day I’ll understand why she did it. I’ll never understand it and every passing day reaffirms my position.