I Survived What I Once Thought I Couldn’t

Dear Past Me,

I see you.

I remember how heavy everything felt. How you wondered if surviving meant losing yourself entirely. There were moments you truly believed this pain would break you, that you were standing inside something too big, too cruel, too endless to escape.

You didn’t know how you would make it through the nights when your chest felt tight with fear. You didn’t know how you would keep going when everything familiar fell apart and you were left holding questions instead of answers. You were so tired. Not just physically, but in a way that reached your bones.

But you stayed.

You kept breathing on days when that felt like the bravest thing you could do. You showed up for your children even when your own heart felt shattered. You learned how to take life in minutes instead of years. You made it through moments you once whispered, “I can’t do this,” and somehow, quietly, you did.

You survived things you never should have had to survive.

You learned that strength doesn’t always look loud or confident. Sometimes it looks like crying in private and standing up anyway. Sometimes it looks like choosing peace over proving a point. Sometimes it looks like leaving, even when staying would have been easier for everyone else.

You didn’t become hard. You became wiser. You didn’t lose your softness. You protected it.

I need you to know this: the future you were afraid of is not empty. It holds safety you never thought you’d feel again. It holds laughter that doesn’t feel forced. It holds moments of calm that don’t require permission. It holds a version of you who trusts herself now.

You were never weak for feeling overwhelmed. You were human, surviving something that demanded more from you than it should have. And you did not fail. You endured. You grew. You chose yourself, even when it was terrifying.

Thank you for not giving up when you wanted to.
Thank you for staying long enough for me to exist.

With love and gratitude,
Me