wasn’t until I found myself in a safe space that the anxiety knocked on the door. All the years of pain and fear hadn’t made me tough, they’d simply made me patient. And then, once my belly was full and I had a bed with sheets on it; when I signed my name on that scholarship, and smiled back at Nate the first time. That was when my house of cards collapsed, and the stress of living tried to convince me that I shouldn’t even try.
