Then I put my phone away because I was afraid to see what people would say.
About an hour later, I opened the comments.
The first one was from a girl I had never met.
“In a few weeks, I’m going through the same thing. Thank you for showing these days too, not just the final result.”
I read the sentence again.
Then came another comment.
And another.
Soon, dozens of people were writing to me.
Some had already gone through the same journey.
Others were still preparing for it.
And suddenly, I realized that for
years I had believed I was the only person who felt this way.
On the fifth day, I was finally able to stand in the kitchen for a little longer.
My mother took a picture of me with her phone.
“Delete it,” I said immediately.
“Why?”
“I look terrible.”
She looked at me.
“You said you wanted to show the real journey.”
I held out my hand.
“Give it to me.”
I looked at the picture.
The old version of me would have deleted it instantly.
But that day, I posted it.
On the sixth morning, I woke up and noticed the first small change.
I walked to the mirror.
I turned to one side.
Then the other.
“Mom.”
She hurried into the room.
“What happened?”
For the first time, I smiled.
“I think something is changing.”
From that day forward, I did the same thing every morning.
Photo.
Mirror.
Comparison.
On the eighth day, my mom suggested we go for a short drive.
As we drove, sunlight fell across my face.
I opened the camera on my phone.
Normally, I would take ten or twenty pictures before finding one I liked.
That day, I took only one.
When I opened it, I simply stared at the screen for several seconds.
“What happened?” my mother asked.
I handed her the phone.
She looked at the picture.
Then she looked at me.
“You’re smiling.”
I hadn’t noticed.
It was only a small smile.
But for the first time, I hadn’t been thinking about which side of my face I needed to hide.
On the ninth day, I found one of the photos taken the day before everything began.
I placed the new picture beside it.
I stared at the two of them for a long time.
The difference was already obvious.
