I had my own choices once, in a new and unfamiliar world. I was allowed to speak — to name my fears, to listen to the quiet alarms inside me. Then something larger moved in. A force. A season. A life stage. A voice that wasn’t mine. Maybe a bully. Maybe time. Maybe I still don’t know what the hell happened. I only know I lost her. Buried under expectations, under survival, under a pile of things I never chose but learned to carry. Is this it? Fighting every day to keep the pe