She breaks the silence

Late at night I hear her clearly. The old me in the back of my mind, crying out to be heard. She cries that this is not enough, cries for the things she loved so much. They are things long lost, abilities stolen, dreams shattered. She longs to run, to feel her feet pounding upon the earth; the power, the agility, the control to push her body to its limits.

She wishes things were different, for her life to be the way it could have been. She watches as her friends begin to graduate university, travel, get jobs, their full licences, and move out. It is a world that could have been her reality, but remains unknown.

I let go long ago, I accepted my new reality, my new normality. I learnt to love my life, find new loves, and build new dreams. But the old me, the girl I can never be again, is still there in the back of my mind, a ghost of the past, and in the silence I hear her. I hope I always will; she reminds me of how far I’ve come.