This summer brought clarity, and I

This summer brought clarity, and I was able to make sense of some of the things in my life after having grieved over the memory of my mother. Most notably, I let go of the promise I had once made her that I would become a doctor. I convinced myself that an insult from someone else was unfair, and I walked away from a toxic friendship. This summer, I let myself give up on a task when it became too much to handle. In the past, I would have unconsciously internalized any negative treatment as an accreditation of my faults; I would have refused to fail, because I once thought that doing so would affirm that I was, indeed, unworthy.