I Wore Earrings for No One

Dear Delyara, I was getting dressed for nothing special — grocery store, post office, pickup line — and I opened the little box and put them in anyway. The second they clicked into place, I felt this weird sting behind my eyes. Because I remembered myself. Or at least a version of me that used to believe getting dressed could be an act of selfhood instead of a strategy for making it through the day without drawing the wrong kind of attention. No one mentioned the earrings. That wasn’t the point. The point was that for a few seconds while fastening them, I belonged to myself in a way I haven’t in a long time. Then I went downstairs and found a wet towel on the couch and the spell was broken. Still, I wore the earrings all day. That felt like a small private refusal to vanish completely.