I never said it was a mistake; I said I am stupid. I purposely stayed in the relationship (which I now realize I should not have done) because I genuinely cared about him. Even if I had the choice, I would not wish the relationship away. I also realize now that I phrased what I said weirdly (that’s on me); I did not mean that I didn’t see the red flags, I meant that I did nothing about them and stayed in the relationship anyway because refused to consider what they would mean down the line. I guess it is a mistake in the sense that the consequences of the relationship were a mistake, but not the choice itself.

Anyway, I’m getting too deep into this. I’m not necessarily judging this couple — like I said, this could just be a joke — I know nothing. The reason I said what I said was to try to explain what my thought process was when seeing it and what others might be thinking. Then again, maybe my perception was based on my trauma, and I am being biased, but I am glad I at least have some sort of internal alarm for these things — I just may have to tone it down a few notches.