Families logo

When I Became a Man...

I put aside childish things.

By Luca OPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
Like
God's greatest gift to me in my life, my mum 🙏🏼🙌🏼

After questioning whether or not I wanted to write about this, I've decided to speak about the time that I feel defined me as a man going forward.

Here's a warning for you before you choose to read on from this point: this story brings a tear to my eye to relive and if you are in a place where reading an emotional piece isn't what you need, then feel free to click away from this blog. If you do decide to stick around, thank you. This is the story of when I became a man.

One evening in Spring 2015, I crossed paths with my housemate of 23 years, my mum, and it would be a night that would forever change our relationship for the better for years to come, even during great sorrow.

I'm an only child who was raised in a single-parent household for the vast majority of my life. I'm extremely grateful for the upbringing that I had with a support system that really proved it sometimes takes a village to raise a child. With that being said, I always turned to my mum for emotional support throughout my life and outside of her, I figured out the majority of the curveballs of life on my own.

I'll also remember looking her in the eye and realising that I needed to provide her with stability when her world was completely shaken up.

Looking in the eyes of a person you have leaned on your entire life and knowing they need your strength is a moment that you'll never forget. Finding strength for you both when you're hurting is a moment that will change your life.

That night, I would find out the man who had been in our house for over 10 years and the love of my mum's life had abruptly decided to leave our lives for good. A man who I'd known for nearly half of my life, a man who'd told me he had my mum's back, he was on his way out. To hold my mum and feel all of her body weight leaning on me as she cried isn't something I can put into words; it doesn’t do the pain and anger I felt justice. At the same time, I realised I finally had to have my mum's back after a lifetime of her having mine.

I believe that God blessed me with one of few women who could be MY mum. A sensitive, introverted, deep-thinker that masqueraded as someone who was confident and the life of the party wasn't always easy to manage for a mum, and I love her to death for figuring it out along the way. I now needed to figure this out along the way.

Seven hours after this all happened, I was sitting at a desk as a supervisor of a team who didn't deserve the energy that I was harbouring. I remember sitting on a bench during my lunch break wondering where I was going to find the inner strength just to go back to work, not alone help my mum overcome a heartbreak that I couldn't begin to understand. I'd sit there and either stare vacantly onto the green or cry as I muddled through, allowing myself to be vulnerable for moments in order to be strong when I needed to be.

Whether it was seeing my mum not being able to sleep or struggle to get out of bed, I realised one thing about the best woman in the world. She never broke promises. It was in that moment I decided to ask for her to make me a promise which seemed small, but what turned out to be the beginning of another chapter in her life. I asked her to promise me that should would go back to work in two weeks and we would move on from everything together. She made that promise, she didn't break it, and we began to move on as a team.

It was in that month or so I learned that I couldn't consider my life a success if I didn't use that same strength I found to help empower other people at the lowest points in their lives. That's why I took on my life-coaching studies, it's why I have such big aspirations for my life going forward and it's also why I do my best to attack my life with loving and supportive nature now. I thought that if I can give strength to the strongest woman I’ve ever known, I sure as hell can help others along the way. That’s when I became a man.

Once again, I thank you all for making it this far. I've decided that this is simply part two of a series I have in mind and I'll do my best to provide more for you all going forward.

I love you all,

Luca x.

parents
Like

About the Creator

Luca O

A young man steadily building a platform to encourage open dialogue about mental health through my own experience. Come on in!

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.