I always saw women in my family get hit by their partners. I would tell them ‘Leave them, if it happens once it will happen again’. I always told myself that I would never stay with a person that hit me. On my birthday on Friday, my boyfriend hit me. And I haven’t left. I could make a hundred different justifications for why I stay but it comes down to the fact that I love him and would rather he hit me than live life without him. I know I am stupid, I know there is something wrong with me. But I just can’t help feeling this way.