Gemotions

Sarah’s breath hitched in her throat as she scrolled through the website. There it was, the familiar, childish scrawl of her fifteen-year-old self, splattered across the digital page. A blush crept up her neck, a warm tide rising from her chest. She remembered pouring her heart into those pages, the agonizing crushes, the petty dramas, the desperate yearning to be understood. Now, anyone could read it.

Her fingers trembled as she clicked on the comments section. The first few were neutral, but the fourth comment stung. "Wow, she was a total drama queen!" Sarah squeezed her eyes shut, picturing the author’s face, a stranger judging the vulnerable girl she used to be. She felt a pang of protectiveness for that younger version of herself, raw and open. She wondered if she should respond, defend her past self, but realized that would make things worse.

She closed her laptop, feeling a heavy weight in her stomach. She knew she couldn’t erase the past. All she could do was accept it, for both the girl who wrote the diary, and the people reading it now.