The Twist at the End

"it's a great story, Mom, but none of it is true. Why?"

"It was my way of dealing with things. When something came up, something happened that hurt or sucked or made me cry... I would think to myself 'if this same thing had happened - what would the best possible outcome be? I'd look for the best in the outcomes - what added to my life? And I would focus on that, and remember that instead of what really happened, or the pain.

'I couldn't make what happened go away or never have happened in the first place, but I could pick which details to remember. It's no different than remembering the horrible parts - and when someone is suffering through pain, we sometimes try to get them to 'look on the bright side?', right? Well, I decided to tell myself that. And whenever any of the pain or trauma would come up and try and hurt me, I would force myself to think of the good - what did I learn, how did I get stronger - in anyway shape, or form. And I would focus on that. It got easier, with time, until I told myself the 'happy' story so many times, that the pain didn't hurt so bad because that part of the story stopped coming to mind.

' So now, when I'm telling my story, what happened in my life, I'm telling it the same way I tell it to myself.

'And those tragic things happened, but I am who I am because not only of what happened, but because of how I chose to move on. Changing the story is my choice because it's my life, my narrative."

"Okay, but then if you were making stuff up, why not pretend to have won the lottery or something? If you were going to write fiction, why not go all the way?"

"Harry asked Dumbledoor 'is any of this real? is this all happening in my head?' to which Dumbledoor replies 'just because it's in your head Harry, doesn't make it any less real.'"