I Left, and I Still Grieved Like I Was the One Left Behind

Dear Delyara, I made the decision to leave, and still I grieved as if abandonment had happened to me. That confused me for a long time. I thought making the decision would protect me from the heartbreak of it. It didn’t. Choosing the ending did not spare me the shock of absence, the collapse of routine, the strange silence of no longer being expected in someone else’s day. It turns out you can know something is necessary and still be undone by it. I wish more people understood that.