A decade ago, I couldn’t have imagined the pain I would endure. Each and every day was so painful that someone like me—with strong willpower—was shattered into pieces. Broken from the inside. A soul torn apart. If you asked anyone around me, they wouldn’t have been able to tell what was wrong. Nothing around me was wrong. But something within me had broken. I lost myself.

Why? I don’t know. It felt like I was made to go through it all.

Someone like me, who once dismissed mental health, now strives for it. Someone who didn’t like words like anxiety or depression, now struggles with it.

I’m stitching myself back together every moment. I have done a wonderful job but I miss the old me, unscarred and untouched by wounds.

But I have no choice. The only way for me is forward. Willpower is all I have—the sole ingredient that pulled me through my struggles. With every tear, I screamed that I’d come back ten times stronger.