My Story - Part 1 - I lost Myself Along the Way

Part 1 

17 was a turning point. 
Not one you prepare for, but the kind that splits your life into two. 

He was still here, but everything had changed. 
A day off school, a hockey tournament, a traumatic brain injury. 

We were graduating, we had our lives ahead of us. 
But no one talked about how to hold that kind of weight, guilt, trauma. 

I tucked it away and kept moving. Because what else do you do at seventeen. 

I learned how to be fine. 
How to smile and show up. 
How to push it all down. 

Grief became something I wore quietly. 
I shut down, and started disconnecting. 
And slowly without realizing, I began to disappear too. 

So I kept going.
I smiled. I showed up. I told myself I was fine.
But slowly, I started to disappear.