The Unpolished Truth: Living Alone Again

De: Jerry Banfield

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

You are about to experience my life exactly as it unfolded in the first months after my twelve-year marriage ended. This is Book Four in my Daily Autobiography series, following Author in St. Petersburg, The Kind Divorce, and Sober Through Separation. Those books document the collapse of my old life—leaving massage school, choosing divorce, moving out of the house—and this volume continues the story as I learn what it truly means to live alone again.

When I stepped into my new home, I found myself surrounded by quiet rooms and long evenings, facing a reality I never imagined. The Unpolished Truth: Living Alone Again is my daily autobiography—an unfiltered, real-time account of divorce, solitude, single fatherhood, dating again, and staying sober while rebuilding my life from the inside out. Loneliness wasn’t just silence; it became a new emotional landscape filled with longing, confusion, unexpected freedom, and moments of gratitude that caught me off guard.

In these pages, I write openly about parenting in two homes, rediscovering my creative spark, navigating sobriety while everything else shifted around me, and trying to date again after fourteen years with the same person. Some days brought awkward conversations, flashes of hope, or gut-level honesty about what I really want in a partner. Other days were about making it through, sitting with uncomfortable truths, or finding meaning in the most ordinary moments.

Writing became my anchor, and sobriety remained my foundation. I document the messy, mundane, and magical moments of starting over—Whole Foods wanderings, yoga classes where I wondered if someone might smile at me, tennis clinics, quiet mornings, long conversations with my ex, and the strange synchronicities that showed up right when I needed them. I share the doubts, the fear, the sparks of joy, the spiritual nudges, the humor, and the humility required to rebuild a life without pretending I had it all together.

If you’re going through a breakup, a divorce, or any major life transition, I hope my story helps you feel less alone. This isn’t a polished self-help manual or a manufactured success narrative—it's a living, daily record of transformation, written honestly one day at a time. Join me as I learn to live alone again and discover that beginning again, even in the middle of the mess, can open the door to something unexpectedly extraordinary.