Here’s what you’re allowed: You’re okay to cry and you’re forgiven for being sad or canceling a few plans here and there. You’re permitted a few days off of work and someone to listen to you vent a handful of times. But processing and accepting the gravity of something that touched every last inch of you is not something you can do on a mental-health day. It’s not something the world affords you enough time for, and so you botch the job. You carry on.
