Reflection

When I look back on those years today, I see them from a different perspective.
Back then, they felt like endless darkness, a world without any glimmers of light, where every day was a battle just to survive.
But from where I stand now, I realize how much strength it took simply to keep going.
I now see that the sixteen-year-old boy who wanted to end everything was, at the same time, the boy who kept fighting, who kept breathing, even when life felt unbearably heavy.

I see that the seventeen-year-old, who felt emotionally shut down and frozen, was also the one who learned to persevere, who found ways to survive, to protect himself, and who, slowly, piece by piece, built up an inner resilience.

None of that was easy.
None of it should ever have happened.
It was unjust, painful, and heartbreaking.
And yet I now understand that these very experiences shaped me into the person I am today.
They taught me to feel empathy for others who struggle, to pause and recognize the invisible suffering of people, and to never judge anyone solely by what is visible on the surface.

Because often, the hardest battles are the ones no one sees.
The fight waged in silence, the wounds you cannot touch, the nights filled with fear and loneliness – all of this remains invisible to the outside world, yet it forms the core of who someone truly is.

Now I understand that every moment of pain, every minute of despair, taught me something: about strength, about perseverance, about finding light even in the deepest darkness.
And those lessons still carry me, every single day. They remind me that survival, no matter how heavy, is not weakness but proof of courage.
That even in the murkiest moments of life, resilience is possible.

By looking back, I can not only acknowledge the pain but also see the strength that has grown within me.
The strength that teaches me that life, however difficult, is worth living, and that our shared humanity often lies hidden behind masks of silence, fear, and endurance.