I hide the hick town I grew up in as long as possible

I wrote a LONG rant which got taken down…. anyway….

I’m back to single life again, mid-30s and 2 kids. I’ve always found myself in abusive relationships.

I always wanted to branch out and see the big cities and how people dressed nice, were more articulate and experiencing so much more. That’s what I ended up doing, moving to SF Bay area, LA, a few other cities throughout the US. I can’t relate to my family. We just aren’t the same and they always treated me like I was a lunatic to ever want to dress-up, live in a nice big city and experience life.

I do love them but I have outgrown their ideas. I don’t have much of a friendship base either since I pushed some friends away with my abusive relationships (some are still OK though!) I don’t want to feel like Don\* Draper living some lie…saying my whole family is dead. I don’t want it to seem like there must be something horribly wrong with me and my family hates me.

How do I explain this to someone new?