My divorce – Stardew Valley

I knew after the first Spring that I was going to end up marrying Shane. He was a jerk to me, yeah, but I gave him a few pizzas and then a beer on his birthday without realizing he would like them so much, and then pretty soon we were at four hearts. He was the only one that would dance with me at the flower dance and we shared a beer on the dock over by the forest lake. It seemed so perfect to me! I don’t know, I kind of have a thing for sad boys with a soul-less twinkle in their eye. It was settled then.

I found myself very attracted to him. It must have been the self-defeating humor and the pizzas he stole from Joja mart. His story arc was well done and very touching. He reminded me of a real-life ex I had in high school, back when I thought if you loved someone hard enough you could “fix” them. He wasn’t a romantic, but his gestures felt genuine. We married the Summer of my second year and then…. he just kind of fizzled out. I used to think the pizza rolls for breakfast and him talking about being sweaty and out of shape were kind of cute but after a while, I realized he was just stagnating.

He wasn’t trying to improve himself like he had said he would. His room was always trashed and he would wake up hungover multiple days a week. What was the point of all the work you were trying to do before? I thought you were trying to get your drinking under control? What happened? am I enabling you? It was then that I realized that I wasn’t helping him, and I think he even stopped going to therapy. It seemed like I was the only reason for his happiness, and that’s a really big pressure on anybody. It’s just not okay with me.

The breaking point was when he asked to start of family and I thought, I do want a family, but… Not with him. I don’t really want my children to have a lazy parent who eats pizza, watched TV, and drinks beer all day, sorry. I know he is full of love and would be so great to them, but that was not the life I imagined for our family. I want to be wooed a little bit, I need some romance after a long day.

Shane is just kind of… existing in my house and I don’t like coming home to beer-stained footprints all over the bedroom. I’ve started exploring other options and realize that other characters fit my life style way better. His arc is too real. Depression isn’t magically cured, certainly not when you marry the local farmer, not when you have kids either. I just can’t bring up a family like this. I can’t deal with him anymore 🙁

Obviously this is just a game but I have my own head cannons when I play. It breaks my heart that Shane opened up to me so much and then I realized he wasn’t for me a little too late. So i divorced him on the second day of spring and have been ignoring him since. I’m honestly sad. I miss him and his chicken. I miss his letters in the mail with random food. but we were much better friends than we were lovers. It was too uneven. I was giving too much and getting nothing in return. I’m sorry Shane. I’m sorry I couldn’t handle your alcoholism or your depression better. I’m sorry I expected you to change so much for me. I hope one day you can find your own happiness.

Edit: changed wood to wooed.

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