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Oluwatofunmi Olowu's avatar

"I gave myself to Claire - most parts of myself I intertwined my reality with her destiny because when you love someone and you know you're not enough you give them everything. You give them everything till you have nothing left."

I feel this in ways I wish I didn’t. It’s like reading the inside of my own chest, like you just put words to the kind of love that leaves you hollow. I know exactly what it’s like to love someone so deeply, so fully, that you start handing over parts of yourself like gifts, hoping they’ll finally see your worth in them. Not because they asked for it, necessarily—but because somewhere inside, you believe that if you love hard enough, maybe just maybe, it’ll make up for all the places you think you fall short.

And you don’t even notice when it starts happening. It’s slow. You give a little here, a little more there. You start shrinking your needs, biting your tongue, reshaping your dreams to fit theirs. You confuse sacrifice with devotion. You think that being empty must mean you loved right. But what no one tells you is that loving someone with everything doesn’t guarantee they’ll stay. It doesn’t guarantee they’ll see you. Sometimes, they just take and take because they don’t realize how much it’s costing you—or worse, because they do and they take anyway.

And then one day, you wake up and you’re just... drained. You don’t even recognize yourself. You’re exhausted in a way that sleep can’t fix. And what’s wild is that you don’t even regret loving them. You just wish someone had loved you like that in return. That someone would’ve seen the cracks forming and told you that love isn’t supposed to leave you with nothing.

So yes, I’ve been there. And I wouldn’t wish that kind of love on anyone—not because it isn’t real, but because it’s the kind that asks too much of you and never knows how to give it back.

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Osayamen Precious Temitope's avatar

Wow, Tobiloba—this is honestly one of the most moving pieces I’ve read in a while. The way you layered memory, love, betrayal, and identity is so raw and real. I felt every moment—from the delicate way your father looked at your mother, to the quiet heartbreak with Halimat, to the almost mythical peace you found with Claire. The recurring theme of dreams tied to infidelity? That was genius. It gave the whole piece a haunting, almost spiritual weight. And the characters—each one so alive, so flawed, so vivid. You didn’t just tell a story, you made me feel it. This was beautifully written. Thank you for sharing something so personal and powerful.

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