The person I am now.

“I’m not reclaiming my life. I’m learning to build another.”

DESCRIPTION

Trauma isn’t something you overcome in order to return to who you were before. The person who existed before the rupture no longer exists; what emerges afterward is a reconstructed identity, different and shaped by the experience of pain.

Kintsugi, the Japanese technique of repairing broken pottery with gold, embodies this transformation: the cracks aren’t hidden, they’re honored. The fractures become an integral part of the new form. The piece, restored with golden veins, isn’t defective; it’s a distinct version, marked yet whole.

“The person I am now” means that the former self is gone, but the body remains. What remains is the task of building a new identity that integrates the scars—without pretending to erase what was lived, but by embracing it. It isn’t about going back; it’s about learning to exist in another way.