Secrets
I'm a Serial Relationship Saboteur (and I Hate That About Myself)
Okay, I know this is super messed up. Like, genuinely terrible. But I need to get it off my chest. I've got this group of friends from high school. We're all in our late twenties and early thirties now. Everyone's starting to settle down, getting into serious relationships, talking about marriage, kids, all that stuff. Meanwhile, I'm still single as hell. And honestly? I'm fine with that. I'm not looking to settle down anytime soon.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
I Beat Up My Teacher Yesterday, and I Don't Know How to Feel About It
I'll keep this short. I'm 16. In school. Like every day, I was standing in the morning assembly for our national anthem. Next to me, a girl started swaying because of heat stroke. I knew she was going to faint and fall, so before that happened, I caught her and started taking her to the benches near the shade.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
I Watched My Lover Die While We Were Tripping, and It Haunts Me to This Day
In 2023, I was 15 years old. I was struggling with addiction, in and out of psych wards, and nothing seemed to be working. I was a mess of medication, mania, and despair. Then, while in a hospital, I met my first love. He was 16. He and I spent as much time together as we could. I never knew I could have feelings as strong as I did. We were both very bipolar, on medication, and had just survived attempts.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
The Lie I Built Around Love
Everything started when I was young. Oliver was my best friend and my crush. He had dark skin, spiky hair, and the most beautiful face. I was smitten by him in every way possible. I always thought he didn't love me back. He was a straight guy, after all. But I had hopes.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
Her Cats, Her Mess: Payback Served Fair and Square
Oh man, I feel this on a deep level. That is absolutely infuriating. You’ve lived next door to this woman for around 15 years, and the whole time she’s always had multiple cats when one passes away, she gets two more. Right now she has at least eight or nine of them, and every single night they treat your garden like their personal public toilet. You don’t hate cats, but you have reached the absolute end of your patience with their mess, the stench, and the endless flies that swarm every pile. And now you have a toddler who loves nothing more than playing outside but your own garden is unsafe, because it’s covered in cat faeces that pose a real health risk to your little one.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
The Weight of a Stolen Apology: Reckoning with Childhood Cruelty
Some memories do not fade with time; they calcify. At thirteen, in the quiet hum of a Saturday ceramics studio, I committed an act of cowardice that has outlasted the fox sculpture I destroyed and the boy I betrayed. The physical artifact is long gone fired, glazed, perhaps discarded but the moral fracture endures. What haunts me is not the snapped leg of wet clay, but the moment I watched confusion curdle into resignation on another child’s face as he apologized for my mistake. Worse still is the praise I received afterward for handling it “maturely,” a reward that turned complicity into virtue. This essay is not about seeking absolution from a stranger who likely forgot my name decades ago. It is about finally naming the truth I stole from him, from my parents, and from myself: that cruelty wears many masks, and the most damaging ones are those mistaken for grace.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
The Wrecking Ball Was Me: Carrying the Weight of a Stolen Blame
Some lies are small enough to fit in a child’s palm, yet heavy enough to bend the spine of adulthood. At fourteen, I shattered my father’s aging phone with a careless press, then pressed it into the hands of our three-year-old neighbor before stepping into the garden to perform innocence. My father’s gentle resignation calling the boy a “wrecking ball” instead of raging was mercy misplaced. That mercy became my prison. Now sixteen, that boy still carries the nickname like a harmless joke, while I carry the truth like a stone in my throat. This is not a story about broken glass; it is about unbroken silence, and the quiet violence of letting someone else wear your shame as a punchline.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
The Suspended Policy and the Audi: A Lesson in Mistakes, Honesty, and Moving Forward
I've been having some issues with money lately. I lost my card on a trip and had to lock it. The thing is, I had that card on autopay for my insurance and hadn't realized that I missed my payment last month. I know it's super dumb for me not to be paying attention to that.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
The Email I Should Have Removed
I've had my best friend's email logged into my phone for a year. It started innocently enough; she needed to use my phone during a time when she didn't have access to her own accounts. Her phone had broken, and she was waiting for a replacement. She needed to check something urgently, so I logged her in. I told her I'd log out as soon as she was done.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
The Scream That Never Left: A Confession of Inaction
I have a confession that has always troubled me and weighed heavily on my heart. It's a secret I've carried for years, one that I've never spoken aloud to anyone. I don't know if writing it down will make it better or worse, but I need to get it out.
By Mark Lim 2 months ago in Confessions
