Victor Faust did much more than help me escape a life of abuse and servitude. He changed me. He changed the landscape of my dreams, the dreams I had every day about living ordinarily and free and on my own. He changed the colors on the palette from primary to rainbow—as dark as the colors of that rainbow may be.

It’s not only about sadness. In truth, sadness really has little to do with it. Depression is pain in its purest form and I would do anything to be able to feel an emotion again. Any emotion at all. Pain hurts, but pain that’s so powerful that you can’t feel anything anymore, that’s when you start to feel like you’re going crazy.

What compels any of us to do the things we do when deep down a part of us just wants to break free from it all?

It’s my future and my life and I can’t make myself live the way someone else wants me to.

I could die in this bed with him right now, wrapped in his arms and I would never know that I had died.

Well, I’m glad you didn’t drown.” His eyes warm up with his face. I smile back at him. “Yeah, that would’ve sucked.” “Definitely.

Just because one person's problem is less traumatic than another's doesn't mean they're required to hurt less