There is too much noise inside it.

And maybe one day I'll have to open the door.

Not for everyone.

Not all at once.

Maybe just enough to let one voice in.

One conversation.

One person.

One small piece of the world I kept outside.

Because perhaps healing was never supposed to mean disappearing from everything that could hurt me.

Maybe it means learning that I can stay—

even when something scares me,

even when I don't know what will happen,

even when I can't control how people will treat me.

Maybe I don't need to become someone who never avoids.

Maybe I just need to stop letting avoidance make every decision for me.

Because I don't want my life to become a place where I am safe from everything...

and therefore close to nothing.

And maybe that's what I'm most afraid of.

Not being hurt again.

But waking up one day and realizing that I protected myself so well that there was no one left to hurt me and no one left to hold me either.