The Story Untold
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
-Maya Angelou
It’s been nearly five years, several love stories, and a long line of fortunate, and very unfortunate events, since my original blog, “Love, Style & Touring,” first hit the internet. It was a story about love, loss, and pain and was created as a way to process the tidal wave of emotions that erupted post-heartbreak.
Now, in 2023, I find myself healing from a very different kind of love story—one of longtime friendships lost and the avalanche of change that followed suit. It’s not an easy story to tell, it’s riddled with disappointment, betrayal, untold stories, and layers of untruths.
What’s wild about telling my story this time around is that other people have made attempts to tell my side without my consent—media outlets, trashy gossip columns, people that I thought were my friends, some that I called my family, and even people that I helped level up in their careers.
I have been contacted by countless magazines, media outlets, gossip blogs, and all kinds of people on Twitter and Instagram trying to use this story to create clickbaity headlines that are here today and gone tomorrow. Although it was admittedly tempting at times, handing my story over to someone who would likely twist my words to create whatever narrative they wanted to spin was ultimately not an option.
While a lot of people have reached out to me in the past year with words of support and encouragement, some players in my story have decided to “take shots” by projecting their words, their experiences, and their beliefs onto my experience as if their projections are somehow my truth. For an in-depth analysis of the kind of ego that requires, please reference the elementary textbook, Egomaniacs 101.
It is in response to this child’s play that I sit down and type out my story—which is a long series of untold stories—in my own friggin’ space: no press, no outside influences, no editors, no clickbait. As opposed to how the other characters in my story make moves, this creative journey is my opportunity to tie the final golden string around the healing process that’s been flowing through me since 2010.
In order to make it all make sense, though, we’ll have to go back…like way back.
Throughout this exploration, you’re going to meet characters like Halibut, the seemingly charming rodent who lives life blurring boundaries in order to control those around them.
Then there’s Tink, the fairy that floats in and out of this story blissfully unaware of the depth and complexity that’s happening right in front of their very eyes.
Grut is an interesting player in this story because they’re meant to be someone that assists all of the characters in this saga, but when I needed them at one of the most crucial points in my life, they failed to show up. As a result, for the past 13 years, I’ve lived with a lifelong condition that could’ve easily been avoided. In fact, despite their close proximity at the time, most of the characters in this story failed to show up in one of the darkest hours of my adult life. What’s worse, some actually made jokes about it.
There are so many layers to peel back and characters to introduce and, trust me, you’re going to meet them all. I will admit that I’ve tried to avoid this moment for YEARS, but if I’ve learned anything it’s that healing wants what healing wants.
Over the past couple of years, I have made tremendous strides in growing my business, Drunk Astrology, and making serious advances toward my next set of dreams, but there’s been a little monster lurking in the shadows, vying for my attention the entire time.
So if you’re willing to jump down the rabbit hole with me, we’re going on a wild and zany journey to yesterday in order to understand today and where we’re going tomorrow.
If you were with me during “Love, Style, and Touring,” welcome back. If not, I’m happy you’re here. This is the second chapter. This is “Dancing in the Dark: A Blog by Graham Breitenstein.”
Talk soon.
