There are some things you write about, and some things you don’t. It doesn’t matter how ‘in touch’ you are with your emotions or how ‘psychologically adjusted’ you are, a line should always be drawn when you’re in the right state of mind and not pushed when you’re not.

The want to talk it out to an unjudging, faceless ear can be tempting. Writing is the out when there is nobody to talk to. I’ve been writing since I was 12, and as things go, with the good comes the bad. Writing also creates a permanent memory unless you gather up the courage to let go and throw or burn it all away. Nobody writes to forget.

A new belief system is hard to develop, instil and grow confident about when it’s constantly being challenged at a personal and emotional level. But then again, maybe that’s what it takes to have rock solid beliefs, having them challenged at every step. After all, I’ve never felt the need to fall back to the comfort of precedent unless I was in doubt about what to believe in the first place. One way or the other, the right set of beliefs bubble to the top.

Change is never easy enough that you offer no resistance, and is just hard enough to make you think you can reach if you just push yourself a little more. With every push, you lose a bit of your old self and gain a bit of your new self. All that’s left to remind you where you came from are the things that you’ve written and memories you’ve collected over the years, unless you gathered up the courage to throw them away. Then you can fully believe that this — your new self — is how you always were. Change is a sadistic, sadistic bitch.