Standing Up..With Pride ©

The story — in my words

I wrote this one when the weight of a secret felt heavier than the world itself. I was thinking about the performative nature of survival—how we pin on a badge of 'pride' or strength just to mask the fact that we're barely holding it together with a prescription bottle in our pocket. We cut this in a way that feels cold and hollow, mirroring that feeling of standing in a courtroom or a doctor's office where your life is being debated by people who don't know your ghosts. The line about the orange bottle being a sinking stone is the heart of it for me. It’s that moment you realize the thing you thought was helping you stay afloat is actually the very thing dragging you under the freezing water.