“How, Noah? How do I move on––just like that––without getting anything positive from it? Something meaningful or valid that I can wear as a gold badge of honor to prove my heroic escape from the bad guy?” “Why do you feel like you need to get something out of it to make it valid?” “Because,” I explained desperately. “Because if I just move on, then . . . none of it matters. None of my pain, or damage, or humiliation means anything. It’ll be as if it never happened and I just spent all my years being miserable for nothing.”
