Mr Sherpen's reply history at Help.com

Google “Open Office” instead. It /is/ free, being open source, and it’ll open any Word document you need to. Support open source!

It could be a lot of things. Remember, when you sleep, you do not really have control over your body - so you very well could have moved your legs over something that scratched them. It takes so little pressure to scratch the skin that it could be anything - a little shard of pebble in your pants or on your bed could very well have done it.

Also plausible is that you could have gotten such scratches during the day without noticing. This happens to me a lot, and I’m a big wuss in terms of getting a cut - so it’s funny that I don’t notice until later a scratch or big purple bruise.

I highly, highly doubt something paranormal wanted to scratch up your legs. Take comfort in that your brain ignores most extraneous information.

Get going! The sooner you start, the quicker it’ll be done!

If it’s getting really hard to get yourself to work for yourself, tell yourself that you’re doing this hour for your dad. I don’t know about you, and it might be different for a full time care giver, but once I’m working for someone else’s sake I can actually get a move on.

You don’t have to do a huge gulp today. Just start with an hour. Work up from there if you can.

(also hey, noticed the map, we live around the same area. Freaky, we probably attend the same school.)

I don’t believe in defining identity.

If you think about it, what does identity typically involve? Figuring out what you as a human want, need, like, dislike? What your goals are? What kind of labels are and aren’t applicable?

But don’t all those things change from day to day? Unless you are the most stubborn, stoic, and static of people, don’t your goals change?

I think what is better than trying to force yourself into a mold that you think most appropriate (and then trying to stick to that mold) is to just know yourself. Recognize how you act and what you prefer. Things like that are fluid. If you fall in love, or if something breaks your heart forever, you will change. You will always change as a person.

I wish more people would recognize this, and instead of wondering who they are and what they’re meant to do, to stop, to look at their own thoughts and feelings, and to not try to carve from their emotions and dreams something solid and life-long.

I appreciate the replies.

I’m not really sure how to do this, though. I received some similar remarks when I went to counseling for an unrelated manner, and I tried to effect them peaceably, by taking a night off a week to hang with my friends. But she thought I was being emotionally abusive to her and playing with her emotions to effect change how I wanted it. She thought that in trying to distance myself, I was abandoning her. She thought I was selfish for leaving her to be alone. I believed her. She is agoraphobic, so it’s hard for her to get out.

I know it sounds like I’m enabling her, but without my assistance she wouldn’t have the friends she does have. A few years ago, she basically became a complete hermit with lots of nervous breakdowns, and cut off all her friendships. She’s a much more confident person today, and has learned to love herself again, but it still takes a little time for friendships to grow. So I do understand where she’s coming from. I don’t know. I sound like a big idiot.

Before you speak or communicate, even if it makes an awkward silence, stop yourself. Think of what you /should/ say. Then force yourself to say it, maybe by mitigating it with “It’s hard for me to say this, but etc etc”.

That’s the only way to change. It’s hard as hell, but you have to. It’s terrible, but no one cares that you grew up in a broken home if you’re putting them down and making them hurt. No one cares that you don’t intend to hurt them when they are crying. You need to stop yourself from doing these things at every turn. It will be hard. It will be very hard, and you will feel like you’re not making much progress at first. But if you keep at it, you’ll see yourself change.

It’s kind of a random event. I’ve only gotten it a few times - but I don’t get it before sleeping. Usually I get it if I’m not really tired but am trying to sleep anyway, and I kind of peak out of sleep too soon. It is really random though.

Nope! All the well-employed people I know worked hard to get there, or at least got their degree. :)

Stop pitying yourself, first of all. Self-pity just shows that the only person you really care about is yourself. Not how anyone else feels around you. Oh, sure, you may sort of care how your mom feels, or your boyfriend, but really? All you care about is getting what you want.

Look, you’re 15. I’m not going to be ageist here. I remember what it was like to be 15. Many of your choices you make based on your emotions, which are incredibly strong and make you feel like they encapsulate the whole world. And they do, in a way - they are your world.

I’m asking you to take a step back from this. Stop thinking about your boyfriend for 10 minutes. Don’t think about your home life, or school, or trying to get out of the house. Just think about /you/.

What did you want to do in life before you met your boyfriend? Sure, love changes everything, but believe me when I say that passion fades - and when it does for you, you aren’t going to want to be stuck with a baby and a dead end job and a mom you’ve hurt badly. Remember what you used to want to do for yourself. Did you have any dreams? Did you want to go to college, or maybe be a cook or an artist?

If you run away, or try to get pregnant, or do anything rash to move in with him when you’re underage and he could go to jail for sexual acts with you no matter if you consent or not, all those dreams - and any others you could have once you realize the situation - are /gone/. You can’t get them back without hard, hard work, harder than you ever want to do.

Instead of thinking about trying to be with him no matter what, why don’t you try changing your home situation? If there is a lot of fighting at home, make sure you’re not a part of it. It takes two people to have an argument. Being calm and composed /will/ win you what you want, rather than shouting or trying to force your way. This is part of the finesse of being an adult, and until you learn things like this you /know/ you shouldn’t consider moving out.

It’s hard being 15. You feel like you’re old enough to do what you want, and you know you can make decisions, but society at large still sees you as being a kid. But let me tell you something. If you really love him, the best thing you can do for both of you, to keep that love alive, is to wait and not do anything rash. Love can be twisted by bad decisions, and every possibility you’ve named - tricking him into having a baby, running away, things like that - are all, on the whole, rash decisions.

Thank you for reading this advice. I hope you act on it.

“I feel like I’m just being the worst girlfriend because my anxiety is out of control. . .but because I have no one to talk to, I talk to him.”

Can I ask you a question?

Do you not have a lot of friends?

As social creatures, part of our well being - and our security and our ego - relies on having a social “net” of people who can support us (and we, in turn, support them). Because it sounds to me like all you have is him (here you say that you’ve no one to talk to), I think the first step would be finding someone else to gush to. Help.com is a good first start.

[quote Big Willy!][quote Mr Sherpen](2x)^2

(2)^2 times (x)^2

4x^2

Good luck on the rest of your homework. ;)[/quote]

Doesn’t seem right to me.[/quote]

Then what’s your answer?

[quote msean]My friend had a motorcycle accident and it took a big chunk off his big toe. It never grew back and they grabbed the skin and tucked it up where his toenail used to be.

Now with that in mind I have no idea what their treatment will be for her finger. But it won’t grow back. Also the width of a dime is relatively small, so that actually will probably come back, I mean that’s barely crossing the threshold of skin. Even if it didn’t grow back it wouldn’t look abnormal.[/quote]
Hmmm, that’s probably what will happen - in regards to your poor friend.

Unfortunately I was rather unclear - I more meant the diameter and not the actual width of the dime. The whole thing was sliced clean off, and unfortunately because of the situation it was too contaminated to reattach. But thank you.

[quote Daft Puck][quote Mr Sherpen][quote Daft Puck]I don’t think that human limbs can re-grow like that, unfortunately.[/quote]
Neither do I, and it’s a **** shame. I’ve been looking into the costs of plastic surgery, if only to help her get back some support (she’s an artist, and it’s her dominant thumb).[/quote]

oooh, I’m sorry. That’s really too bad. I wish you both the best of luck.[/quote]
Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

Your parents aren’t going to kill you. But because you’ve been hiding something from them, they will be mad. If you’re a person of any worth, you know the right thing is to tell them. Good luck - it’s better that they know the truth. You can’t hide this forever, as other people have pointed out.

That neighbor has deplorable grammar ;) the double negative!