Letter To Stephanie

A Letter to Stephanie.

Wow, Where do I start? It’s been awhile huh? It’s kinda funny that the minute I convince myself that I’ll never talk to you, or see you again, you mom shows up at my work asking how to get ahold of me. That’s pretty crazy. I always heard you never find what you are looking for until you quit looking, I guess it works out kinda funny They were right. Ok, So about that start, This is going to put a lot of stuff to rest for me steph. All I ask is that you read it word for word, from beginning to end before you say anything about it, or quit reading. This letter is my psychatrist,  I will use it to tell you everything I have needed to tell you for a long time now. Things that have totally changed who I am Steph. Yeah it may have been some Hard stuff I had to deal with, but I finally can see the whole picture now, And I thank you for all the times your Life has crossed mine. You have truly made me a better person without even knowing.

So ok, back to the little story. Wow, It seems like so long now. Up until now, when I see you again, I didn’t realize Just how long it has been. I guess I have lived in a fantasy world since we broke up. And to be honest, I don’t even remember Us Breaking up. I mean I know we did, I just can’t remember any of the conversation, what it was all about, where I was, anything. Whats really odd about that is I can remember everything else of our relationship Crystal clear. Like When you were dating dustin and we stopped at the football field, looking for that girls sister, and you guys went back under the bleachers. I stayed in the car and When you came out, you were walking in back, and when you got close to the car you flashed me real quick and then just looked at me and smiled. I’ll never forget how I felt at that moment, or your face. You stole my heart back then Steph, Looking at you I saw the most beautiful creature God created. I’ve tried to analyze our relationship a lot, and when I talk to people about it, I just tell them we “Clicked”. I say it was telekinetic, fate, soulmates, or whatever else you want to call it, but It is all the same. We never really ever talked about it when we were together, but when we split up, I dedicated my life to trying to explain it. So anyways, this is my thoughts, I really don’t know if you ever felt the same, But at least I have to tell you how I felt. When I was with you Steph, It was like I could read your mind, Like literally. It seems like You never had to say a word, and I knew what you were thinking about, and especially how you were feeling. I could tell when you were truly happy, or just faking it, I could tell when you were upset, You didn’t have to say a waord. I know we talked about everything a lot, and so you would usually tell me when you were upset or happy or whatever anyway, but I guess It was just like, I already knew the story. I never in my life did that with anyone else. I didn’t really know why it was like that, or why I felt like that, but it was unreal. I remember times when you were hurt, I can think about them still today, and feel that pain in my chest, Everything you ever shared with me, I could “feel” When you were happy I was happy, When You were sad I was sad. Kinda like my emotions fed off of yours. I got into astrology because of those feelings. I had to see what it was about you that made me feel like that, and Why I never with anyone else. So that basically started everything. Astrology pretty much said everything I was trying to find out, everything seemed like it was exactly right about me. I did your chart, but didn’t have your birthtime, so I guessed and it also seemed really on about the kind of person you were, Except for a few things, But that was because the time was wrong. (I got the right time from your mom and finally got an exact chart, so now everything makes sense. I’ll give you a copy of it. And you can see what you think.) So yeah, That got me started on this whole relationship astrology kick. I tore our charts apart sepratly, and together. Looking at every aspect of our individual personalities, And our relationship to each other. Well, along the way, I guess I came to this conclusion that we were soul mates. Something I never knew about before. I started changing all my religious beliefs. I mean I believe in God, and Jesus, I just don’t really believe in organized church. It’s like Most of the people who say they are so holy are actually so hypicritical, but, That’s another story. Anyways, I started getting this fate thing in my head of how god programmed everyones life from the beginning, along with the choices we have, it’s just he had a path for every possible choice already planned. So this gets me thinking about Ok, I dropped out of college, I was only there to meet you. Like he had everything planned for me to find you. I was in a relationship with the only girl I ever slept with up to that point, Talking about getting married as soon as I finished school, Then I meet you, who the first time I ever see you, even though it was only for a second, when Me and dustin rode by the pool hall and you were standing in front, I fall in love, Real love. Not what I thought love was when I was with cathy. So yeah, 4 days later we Broke up. Even though nothing Happened with us, I just knew me and Cathy weren’t meant to be together. Well, you know the story, Time went by, and me and you hooked up. Steph, I remember the night you were fighting with dustin about that skank bitch he was getting weed off of and I was giving you a ride home. You just jumped across the seat and started kissing my neck.. I had chills so bad, It felt so right, I could feel my whole body tingle, I can still feel it and give myself chills.  Well, that whole time steph, all I ever wanted to do was be there for you, Serve you, pleasure you, do whatever for you, and I never wanted anything back in return. I had never given love freely like that before.. It always seemed with cathy It would be something Like I would do something for her, then later ask her to do something for me cause I did it for her. I did that in everyother relationship I was in after you too.. It Wasn’t like that at all with you. I mean you always did everything for me anyways so I would never have to ask anyways, but the point is that all that mattered was that you were happy. It all goes back to that, when your happy I’m happy, when your sad, I’m sad thing. It was like I never looked at it as me and you. I always saw it as Us. If anyone challenged you, they challenged me too. Steph, Your probably sick about now, but, Just laugh, I promise it isn’t going to be one of those depressing, Oh You should break up with your man and go back with me letters, I just have to tell you everything. The one thing I missed the most was You as my friend. As The Best Friend I ever had. The friend that knew everything about me, that I couldn’t hide anything from, and never wanted to anyway. That’s why you get this letter steph. Because You are the one who’s opinion matters to me. I Had a few real close friends that were girls, not girlfriends, in the last five years that I told everything I am telling you now. It’s just, I don’t really think they understood. They would say they did, But I don’t really think they did. I know you will. If no one else in the world Knows, I know you will. So ok where was I. Oh yeah, We dated everything was cool, we moved to Columbus, and Shit just went downhill. Let me start by saying two things I have needed to say for a long time. Stephanie , I am so sorry I spent so much time on the computer. Not that it even matters anymore, But I just wanted you to know that. I wish I would have spent every minute I had Just holding you. The Other Thing that I regret to this day, and will probably haunt me every day till I die is that I didn’t run away with you the night before you had to go back to your dads. Hard to tell how things would have been If I would have just been like Fuck it lets go.

So yeah, We move to Columbus with no where to live, your moms all fucked up over jeff, We Got to donate plasma to have money to eat, The abortion, Yeah those were some pretty hard times. Through it all though, I loved you more and more. You know back then, It may have been an escape from everything for you for us to get married, But I was all about it for the simple fact that I knew you were special, I knew I wanted to be with you, To make you my wife. But, as fate works it’s magic, It didn’t happen. So we move on, You go to your dads, and I go to the valley. Here’s where Our life together left off until now. This is everything That happened in that time, And again, It’s just something I need to tell you. I don’t want you to think I’m telling you all this to make you feel bad or anything Steph. It’s just like I said Before, This is my psychatrist, and I need to let it out, and you are the only one who will understand, and needs to hear it.

Ok. Well, lets see. The Ride home. I listen to Love songs and cried. Yeah I’m a bitch I guess.. It just hurt so bad. I got home and stayed with my cousin for a few weeks.. In which time I started smoking weed a lot to try to forget about stuff and make Three years pass by quick till you were eighteen. We talked a lot on the phone and stuff. I had your dog stuffed animal And your perfume. I would spray the dog and sleep with him everynight.  I wore your rings for like a year after we broke up… Like I said before, I don’t really remember much about how it came we broke up, That whole part of my life is kinda just blocked, I can’t remember anything from that time. When I do remember is being broke up with you, getting into drugs more looking for answers. I turned into a full fledged Pot head, and Started Doing acid, coke, Crystal Meth, I even smoked crack there for awhile. Everything with us, and finding out my dad was real sick, and being in debt so bad, It all just happened, I was selling drugs to make money, and doing all the mony I made in drugs. I hope you don’t think any less of me, I am so sorry I ever did any of it now, But at the time, nothing Mattered, I really didn’t give a fuck about anything. Then One night on 2 Hits of Purple jesus and three Green Gel caps, I put a bullet in A Nine, And Put it in my mouth. That whole experience kinda messed me up pretty bad. I mean, I pulled the trigger, I should be dead, But it jammed, I took it out of my mouth, and put it in the air, pulled again, and It fired. Being on acid, I don’t know If I had a real religious experience, or if it was all imagined, but one thing is for sure, the gun didn’t go off In my mouth. So What it was like to me was like, It wasn’t my time yet, so God wouldn’t let me. Well, I started looking for answers, That’s when I got into astrology and All kind of psychic stuff. It was like When I was trippin, I would find myself. I didn’t do it with people after awhile, and I didn’t do it to get fucked up anymore. I did it to let out everything I had inside, From Childhood memories, To you. Always by myself. Well Throughout my studies of astrology, I find out about astral Projections, which are out of body experiences, which sounded exactly like what happened to me when I was trippin. I don’t know if you have ever done it before, I hope not, but, If so You may know what I mean. Well, I had a few real bad trips, and that’s when I realized These Experiences were happining without me having any control. Not a very pleasant thing.. It started out they were the very best feelings, But the bad ones were the very worst, Like The Good ones took me to Heaven, But The bad ones took me to Hell… It scared me a lot, I quit tripping and decided to get to that state of mind through meditation instead of drugs, A little late I guess, Cause I was having flash backs a lot even though I didn’t do anymore acid. I still have them sometimes now.. They only last like ten minutes at most, but they usually trigger panic attacks, Maiinly where I think I’m dying, cause That’s how the bad ones were. I really believe to this Day I died tripping, and came back to life. I guess All of this is just to let you get an idea of how my state of mind was at the time, but, I’ll get back to the story now. Well, I thought about you all the time, every minute, everything I did, It was about you, even though we weren’t together. I felt so lost without you it was unreal.. I let everything go while I lived in a depressing fantasy world of you. That is the point that I started writing the poems that turned into songs on the cd I gave you. I would sit by myself for hours, sometimes days, just thinking, and writing. I have a few notbooks of stuff I wrote from that time I want to turn into a book, I’ll have to show you sometime. It took me about two years before I dated anyone else. I dated this girl named Hedi that reminded me of you. We dated for about three weeks then broke up because I couldn’t stop thinking about you when I was with her. It seemed with her and everyone that followed I judged everything they did by you. By how perfect I thought our relationship was compared to the ones I was in. It was like I haven’t been able to live in the present. I got stuck in The past because I never really felt like we should have been split up. Like I had Everything I ever wanted and would never find anything better, ( Not that there is anything better, like I said Earlier, Gods most beautiful creature, Physically, Mentally and Emotionally) so I just wanted that back. So I waited another year, The whole time thinking of you still and wondering what you were doing, and How your life was, Then start dating this girl named Terri. She reminded me a lot of you because She was Feisty like you. She wouldn’t take anyones shit. We got along ok, them it just got out of hand, which I will admit was my fault, because I never put 100 percent into our relationship.. I always compared her to you, and The bad thing was I told her when I was doing it with things like, When I was With Stephanie, She Never did this, or Whatever. That’s the time I called you and You were pregnant with Kaytlin. You talked about joey, and I told you how much of a bitch Terri was. You also told me Joey was hitting you. I was Pissed.. Even though He was Going out with you, and I hadn’t seen you in a couple of years, I felt like I just wanted to kill him. I guess After that conversation, I thought maybe There was still a chanch for us to be together, you know that whole soulmates thing, so, Not long after I moved back to Columbus, and started back to work with My Uncle. I started straightening Up all my shit, and started making good money, got Microsoft certified as an engineer, and It seemed like My life was going great. Only I still felt empty. Everything still revolved around you. I would think about you all the time, Even dream of you a lot of the time. Believing I was getting some kind of Psychic link to your feelings if I concentrated hard enough. I tried to get ahold of you a few times but couldn’t And suddenly 2 years went by. I really questioned myself all the time. I had all these beliefs that all the psychic, astrology, soulmate, fate, thing was real, but at other times I would just think I was crazy, or obsessive, Scitzophrenic, whatever you want to call it. I Was so depressed through those five years, I let drugs run my life for awhile, I thought about you all the time, dedicated my free time to astrology ans religion, psychic things, all just to try to explain Our relationship. I sat down one day in my room, and played a few songs that really make me think of you really loud, and lie in my bed trying to figure out why I was so obsessive, and tell myself how pathetic I was to let all that time go by because I lost a girlfriend. I realized how pathetic my friends thought I was because I wasn’t playing every girl that came along like they were because I was In love with A Girl I hadn’t seen in 5 years waiting on a fantasy that she was my soulmate and we would be together again so I was going to wait on her. I thought of all this and realized It probably wouldn’t ever happen. I was foolish for thinking it would. So I started dating this girl named Heather. We got along really good, And I started new from there with her, Telling myself I Needed to get on with my life with someone else. I dated her for awhile and we got Engaged. Then a few weeks later I get a call from my office saying your mom was there looking for me. Everything I was trying to forget rushed back all at once. Your mom came over and we talked, I lied to her and said I wasn’t dating anyone, because Yeah, I was suddenly obsessed with you again, Not even that I ever really forgot, or that I could ever forget. Well that night me and your mom were talking and she asked me how I felt about you now. I had to be honest with her, so I told her “If it was between Steph Living Happy, or Me dying, I would slice my wrists and bleed To death right there.” Your mom was like, awww, I’m not trying to hear that, but It is how I felt, and I guess I will always feel Steph. The next time she came over she said You were all pissed she came over and didn’t want to talk to me. That I have to say hurt a little, I know you didn’t mean it like it came out to me, but at that time, I was just like shocked. Everything I came to believe as true about life to that point, was just proven wrong, and All the time I spent, was really me being crazy, ans Obsessive. Like I was making myself believe you were feeling the same, When Now I realize there is no way anyone could have ever done it. You had to get on with your life, I should have gotten on with mine, but I didn’t, so Now I had to try to catch up. Well, I finally got to talk to you, then Everything started falling in to place for me. I felt like a lot of pressure was finally lifted because I got to see you, Especially When I was able to give you The cd. I did it with all intents of 1 copy just for you, but I never really thought I would ever see you so I made 10, and gave them to 8 Of My closest friends, kept #1 For myself, And Saved #7 For you, For your Birthday. Kinda crazy I got to give it to you right after your B-day. I thought Of Making yours #7 along time before I ever saw you. Well anyways, This is getting Long, and I’m sure Boring, so I’ll rap it all up. This letter I guess is to tell you what Kind Of an impact you had on me steph. I bet you never had a clue huh? I still believe in Fate, and soulmates, But Now I See the fate could be We were Just So I could see that, now I need to take it as a great lesson and go on. Steph, You are my best friend, Even though I haven’t seen you in so long, You Still are. I hope we can always stay close, You see how it is when We don’t.  I Will ALWAYS Love you Stephanie Cheree Skeens. I only want The Best for you, I hope you and Joey Can Work Out your Problems, and you can Be happy, If not, You will make someone very happy Steph. Don’t ever settle for anything because you think you don’t have a choice. Remember You’re a Diamond, and You need to Be admired, It’s what you deserve. Me and Heather Broke up since I talked to you. But I really think that was meant to be too. We weren’t meant to be married, I was trying to fill that hole with her, and I knew it, I just wouldn’t admit it until now. I will be able to start fresh now, So I thank you again for Being there even though You didn’t even Know you were doing anything. Remember I will always be here for you. Even If I got married down the rode, If you needed me, I would be there In A Heart beat, Even If It meant I would Lose My Marriage. Who Knows, Maybe one day we will get back together And My dreams Would Turn to Reality. But I Am Now able to get that dream world behind me, and start my life new, And Everything from this point on with us, and everyone else, is the beginning. I won’t bring up any of the things I told you here again, unless you want to know anything, But I had to give this too you, just so I could free Myself From it. I have just felt trapped by it every time we talk, and It was like I was holding back, or hiding that part of me from you, and I didn’t know what else to talk about so it made things kind of awkward at times. Now that I told you, It can’t be in my head anymore, and now I won’t be all awkward when I talk to you, We can start brand new as friends, and forget all of the past. This Cd is made up of all the songs that have had a special place and will always make me think of you, Like Texas Tornado, and The Color Of My Love, A Song you gave me the words to in a letter. I Just had to tell you How much you really mean to me Steph, so that way I can never say I wish I would have told you when I had the chance.

I Love Ya Steph,

Jim