I feel a relief that is almost… clinical. Like a fever breaking. My parent died a few months ago, and honestly, the dominant feeling isn’t grief, it’s this quiet calm. For years it was just me and them, and me working whatever job would pay the bills for their care, missing out on stuff, watching my friends go off to college. Now I’m in community college, taking classes I actually want, and I don’t have to rush home every day for some emergency or another. It’s wild, I finally get to be the guy who thinks about what to have for dinner based on what’s on sale at the grocery store, not what pureed something or other I have to make. A little messed up to admit, but… freedom. Yeah, that’s it.