I told her, "It feels like I'm back at the bottom. like nothing I fought for meant anything." She didn't flinch. She just said: "You're not back at the bottom. You're standing at a new doorway. And this time, you're walking in with scars that taught you, not wounds that silence you" She leaned in and whispered: "Starting again isn't failure. It's the proof that life knocked you down and you still had the nerve to rise anyway." And God. that truth hurt, but it healed something too.