I have been using Reddit to meet people since I was 19. There are gaps, but now that I'm single I have a lot more time so I've been doing so often. As much as I want to put success stories in our local subreddit, my apprehension (aside from getting even more low-effort messages, lol) is that I’m anxious about the responses of other users. But for what? If they call me a slut or a whore, a bitch, easy, ugly, or mentally ill, they’re not wrong.

I can be and am those things, and I’m not unworthy, unlovable, or irredeemable because of them. If anything, I garner even more respect now that I stopped letting others' opinions influence parts of my life that do not affect them.

Unless you’ve met me and we’ve talked at length, you probably don’t know about how I was raised in a conservative home, and that I was extremely sheltered concerning many normal childhood experiences because my parents felt that their religious beliefs reasoned this level of control.

Now that my life is completely my own, and as a previous sufferer of prolonged loneliness, severe anxiety, and major depression, I have no time for anything, anyone, or any thoughts that make(s) me feel like shit - especially when said perspective has the intent of self-hatred. According to society, I should feel horrible because I’m a woman, that I’m Black, that I don’t have straight hair naturally, that I’m not skinny, that I have depraved desires, etc. Sucks for them, because I love being a satanic succubus and modern goddess!

One day I will leave this mortal body to reintegrate with the cosmos, though I do have some hope in reincarnation. Either way, one day we’ll be dead and none of this will matter. When I need to reorient myself into the now and out of a thought spiral, that is my go-to phrase. ODWBDANOTWM, my friends.