the truth is, healing was never going to be linear. we were never going to conquer our fear or our pain or our guilt or our shame and move onto the next thing. we were bound from birth to conquer the same thing over and over and over again. the past would never be behind us. the present would never be the only space we existed in. the future was never tangible, never really in front of us... it's just kind of a concept that hangs unreachable above our heads. this thing we think we're walking toward, it keeps us moving. we're always moving, but the grounds we walk lead nowhere. our lives are no more a journey than a jog on a treadmill... moving forward was always an illusion. we are walking the same path again and again and again and we develop shin splints on random occasion, and then we have something to heal, and we do it... we heal ourselves of our shin splints, but they come back and we are forced to start the therapy all over. life was never about fixing all of our problems, until we are left with nothing but goodness and strength, because all of our problems are not constant. we aren't born with every problem we'll have, so that we can spend the beginning of our lives fixing each one until we are rid of the pain and the flaws that slow us down. we fix a problem and an other appears and we fix that problem and we are catapulted into tragedy where old problems resurface suddenly. and this never stops. nothing is ever really "fixed". nothing is ever really over. i wasn't built to ever be whole and present all at once. i am pieces scattered out all over every inch of the earth, that i've touched. i couldn't wait for that anatomy class to end last semester, but even when it ended, i never really left it. there's still a piece of me sitting in a seething frustration at my own inadequacies, my own inability to retain the information, and that piece will be stagnant in anatomy forever, because now that i've unlocked that specific brand of frustration that exists in me, there is no way to lock it again. my growth was never linear, it never will be. my growth is scattered like half smoked cigarettes on long stretches of endless pavement. i am a good person. i have bad intentions. and i am a bad person. i have good intentions. i am everything and nothing and i am who i wanna be but i am hardly anything at all. i am strong today but i may be weak tomorrow. my growth is not linear. i am scattered. i am in bed and i am dreaming and i am writing this and i am waiting and i am comfortable and i am content and i am terrified and i am exhausted and rested and confused and full of clarity. i am never one whole. i am always a half of a half of a half, and so on and on and on.