Gemotions

The weight of the deadline pressed down on her, the air in her small office growing increasingly stale. She was attempting to send an encouraging message to her struggling friend, but the text, a raw expression of her own feelings of inadequacy, was sent to her extremely critical father. The message read, "I’m failing.”

She felt a sudden, sharp stab of panic. Her hands, usually steady, began to tremble uncontrollably. The computer screen swam before her eyes, the words blurring into an indecipherable mess. The silence in the room became a deafening roar.

She felt a tightening in her chest, making it hard to breathe. The thought of his inevitable disapproval, his judgment, filled her with a profound sense of despair. She wanted to crumble, to hide away from the world.