When you finally look back with clear eyes and see that someone’s choices were shaped by their own mental and emotional struggles, compassion begins to grow where anger once lived. It becomes easier to forgive when you understand that what you experienced wasn’t always intentional cruelty, but rather the product of someone who was never able to meet life as it is — right here, right now. Some people live suspended in the past. They scroll through old photos daily, reliving mo

…Even in our moments of happiness, I was something to be hidden, a secret to be managed.

The fireworks haven't ended—they just weren’t meant for him.