Your chapter is on its way

This chapter is the one I almost didn't write.

It begins in a hospital room, with a moment I had only ever shared in pieces — with close friends, in quiet conversations, in the spaces between other stories.

Writing it down fully, for strangers, felt terrifying.

But I kept coming back to the same thought: someone out there is sitting in their own version of that room right now. And if these words find them at the right moment — that's worth every vulnerability it took to put them on the page.

Thank you for being here. I hope chapter 1 is just the beginning.

— Rafia