UPDATE My boyfriend (27M) and I (28F) come from small towns and have been through some traumatic and very publicized experiences. I learned to deal with being pointed at, but how he's in the mix.

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In my post I didn't mention my boyfriend and I work for the same company, he's a branch manager, I'm managing the branch manages. Those ridiculous group calls and team building exercises led to us wanting to get to know each other on a personal level and eventually falling in love, so I guess they're not useless after all. After posting I called my superior to vent, we started working for the company around the same time and she became one of my closest friends. She told me not to rush moving to his town. This Monday she was acting all secretive and mysterious and by the end of the work day my boyfriend was called to HR. He's being promoted and moving to the capitol. (edit for clarification) There was an opening in HQ and he and I were the only people considered for that position. Me because of my experience and him because he's the most valued employee but couldn't go any higher in his branch. After what I told my superior, she put in a good word for him and it was decided the very same day.

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Today my request for transfer was approved, so we're moving there as soon as we get our affairs in order and he trains his replacement. We couldn't be happier! He's currently at my place, we're taking a break from our marathon celebration to share this with the world. I was a bit worried that living and working together can be a bit too much so shortly into the relationship, but apparently I have 2 offices to chose from. We have the option to be together 24/7 but we decided to take a more reasonable route. I'm beyond happy for him. His branch was in an university town. People come and go, there are temps, summer internships, part timers... He compared it to running a kindergarten. His personality, work ethic and problem solving capabilities are what drew me in the first place. His profile picture with that hair and those dimples didn't hurt either. Now he gets to take a break from that insanity and we'll get some of our anonymity back. We'll get to live in a place where not everyone knows everything about us. It's a big city for our standards and a lot of people have a lot of stories. We'll no longer be the town freaks because of events we had absolutely no control over. Meeting new people and telling them ourselves if we feel like it will we a huge, welcome change.

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TLDR- I cried to my superior (one of my closest friends), 2 days later he was promoted and he's moving to the capitol. Today my request for transfer was approved, so we're moving there as soon as he trains his replacement. We'll get to live in a big city where not everyone knows our stories and we're getting our anonymity back. Even if someone recognizes one of us or the word spreads, we'll be living in a place where a lot of people have a lot of stories and we won't be THAT small town freak anymore. What people think they know about our pasts won't control every aspect of our life and we couldn't be happier. We're going apartment hunting this weekend.

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I realized he's the only person I've told my story to, everyone else just knew. Same goes for him. So here we go, ripping off the band-aid. Skip this part if you're worried about getting triggered.

I spent 9 years in a relationship with the first guy I kissed, we were planning to get married after college. Around the time we were supposed to graduate he started acting a bit weird, I put it down to stress. Over the next 2 years his personality flipped 180 degrees and I realized I don't want to spend the rest of my life with him. His behavior got more and more erratic, he was becoming paranoid and extremely jealous and at times manic. I was begging him to talk to someone, tried talking to his parents but nobody would listen. It all culminated when I decided to leave him and he tied me to the bed. All I could do was bang on the wall and it took 3 days for someone to call the police. He committed suicide by cop. His parents dragged me in the press for months, I was the only one trying to help him but they acted like I was the one to blame for his death. Losing my first love, most my friends, the weird looks and whispers aside, once a stranger on the street spit in my face. While all that was still fresh, some expert gave a statement that he probably had undiagnosed schizophrenia, I became the victim in the public eye and that reputation stuck.

I got a few messages about my boyfriend's mysterious disability, so here we go. His car slipped on black ice, he fell off the road and got snowed in. There was a huge search and he was found barely alive the next night. His feet were badly crushed and he had severe frostbite. The doctors decided to amputate his toes and fuse both ankles. A year later he still couldn't walk at all and he was in constant excruciating pain, so he decided to have his feet amputated. That was made public too cause small towns need something to talk about. People were outraged that he wanted to cripple himself for no reason... After the amputation he was walking again but barely cause third world countries don't have the best options for prosthetics. His family sold some property and took him to civilization to get proper prosthetic legs and the whole town was wondering why is he walking normally all of a sudden and he became an urban legend. Some assumed he faked the second amputation for sympathy, attention or whatever. Or drugs, of course. Somehow drugs factor into everything. Nobody talks about how he spent months in and out of hospitals, had 4 amputations and his recovery dragged on for years, and he still graduated in time or how successful he is now. All that started when he was just 19 and now he's the well adjusted adult in this relationship.

Submitted February 26, 2020 at 12:48PM by thatgirl199234 https://ift.tt/3chfHgP