Some things didn’t just stay in my memory, hey settled deeper than that. In the way I react. In the way I protect myself. In the parts of me that changed without permission. I adapted in ways I didn’t even notice at first. Learned to bend around things I couldn’t change. To grow in directions I never planned. Healing wasn’t about removing the pain, it wasn’t about becoming the same again. It was about learning how to live while something new slowly grew through what once hurt me, becoming someone who could carry what happened without breaking under it. Digital collage created with AI-generated assets in Photoshop and After Effects and TouchDesigner .