I, too, was carrying around my own fate. All the things I couldn't know sat somewhere inside, embroidered into me-maybe not quite fixed to the point of inevitability but waiting, in any event, for a chance to unspool.

I'm not afraid of IED's, bullets, mortars.

Maintaining my dignity is so important for me.

I'm afraid of elevators, because they are an enclosed space, but I get in.

Friendships that don't fit my life anymore have faded away, and new ones have come in.

I don't think I'm unusual in that, in my 20s, like many people, I felt invincible.

Getting on a plane is hard for me, but I do it, because travel is vital to me.