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Continue reading →: Isolation Begins: Holidays, Baby Names, and Bassinets
It didn’t happen all at once. It wasn’t one big moment, one obvious wall being built around us.It was slower than that. Softer.It came dressed as love. It started with conversations — casual at first — where every road somehow led back to one thing. “When are you going to…
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Continue reading →: Invisible at the Family Portrait: A Public ErasureThe invitation came casually, almost as an afterthought. “Family pictures this weekend,” his mother said.“We hired a professional. Just the family, of course.” At first, she only asked for my husband. I remember sitting at the kitchen table, staring at him as he relayed the message.“Only you?” I asked, feeling…
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Continue reading →: Unwelcome Guests: When Boundaries Are IgnoredAt first, it seemed sweet. We had barely finished unpacking our last box when the doorbell rang. His parents, standing proudly on the front porch, arms full of homemade casseroles and housewarming gifts. They lived just a mile away, and I told myself we were lucky — who else had…
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Continue reading →: The Beginning: Dreams, Dorm Rooms, and Quiet Red FlagsWe were young. Exhausted. Dreaming. The nights were long — paging through endless patient lists, rushing from one code blue to another. My husband and I were both interns, living in the hospital dorms, surviving on cafeteria food and sheer adrenaline. There were nights when I would pass him in…
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Continue reading →: Shattering my silence: A dance I never learnedThe day had finally come.I was getting married. Somehow, I had survived my last year of medical school while planning a wedding. I believed I had found someone different from my father — someone who could hold a job, who seemed dependable.What I didn’t realize was that I was repeating…
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Continue reading →: When Being Enough Means Being PerfectAll my life, I have been in motion—driven, determined, always striving. On the surface, it looked like ambition. In reality, it was survival. I was chasing something I could never quite grasp: a sense of being worthy, of being loved as I was. It began in childhood. My father wasn’t…
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Continue reading →: When the Wall Cracked: Living Behind the IllusionI don’t just dance, I perform, I breathe, I watch the world disappear I release my feelings I lead with my heart I tear down my walls I stop feeling sad I lose the pain I let go I smile No I don’t just dance I do so much more.…