For a long time, I thought healing meant becoming the person I was before life hurt me.
I thought I had to return to the version of myself who trusted easily, laughed without holding back, and did not overthink every good thing that came my way. I kept looking at who I used to be as though that was the only version of me worth finding again.
But life does not always leave us unchanged. Some experiences make us quieter. Some make us more careful. Some take something from us that I still do not know how to name.
Maybe healing is not about undoing all of that.
Maybe it is about making peace with the fact that I have changed—and believing that change does not mean I am ruined.
This is a piece about learning to let that version of myself become someone new.
There are parts of me
that still carry
the weight of everything
I had to survive.
I will give them time
to rest without shame,
to heal in their own way,
to become familiar
with hope again.
And when they are ready,
I will let them become
something new—
not less whole,
just different
from who I was before.
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Photo by Mink Mingle on Unsplash
