I Kept Going Long After I Had Stopped Feeling Alive

Dear Delyara, I used to think burnout looked like collapse. Now I think it often looks like continuation. You keep going. You keep answering. You keep showing up. You keep saying yes because the machine still works, technically. But something in you is gone. The spark. The curiosity. The emotional flexibility. The sense that life is happening to you rather than through you. That is where I have been lately. Still functioning. Less alive.