08/31/2025
It begins the moment they are gone, and there is no going back to the life you knew before. That life ends, and another one takes its place without your consent.
You did not choose it, and you cannot undo it.
You are forced into it, carrying the absence of the person you love into every day that follows. Nothing feels familiar, even when everything looks the same. The places, the routines, the people around you may remain, but they no longer hold the same meaning.
You are still here, but the world you are in, the life you are in, is no longer yours.
This second life feels endless. There is no finish line, no point where you can say you are done. You live inside it, and grief is built into its foundation.
Slowly, slowly, we learn how to live inside this life. We learn how to stand in it, how to keep breathing, how to move through its days without crumpling at every turn. We find ways to keep going. It is not a choice as much as it is the only option.
Even after we adapt to our current lives, we never stop longing for the time that came before. We carry our past within us, clinging to the person we used to be and the person we love. This longing never truly fades away, and personally, I think it never should.
