Not then.
I just held the papers and felt something shift inside me.
For the first time in a long time…
I wasn’t powerless.
When I walked out that door for prom, nothing felt the same.
Not the house.
Not the people inside it.
Not even me.
They had laughed at the dress.
But they didn’t understand it.
It wasn’t about how it looked.
It was about where I came from.
What I carried with me.
What I refused to lose.
That night, I didn’t feel invisible.
I didn’t feel small.
I didn’t feel like someone just trying to survive in a house that wasn’t mine.
For the first time since my father died—
