A personal reflection on surviving the foster care system, moving through homes that never felt like home, spending my Sweet 16 in a new placement, and how anime and writing fanfiction gave me somewhere safe to exist when real life wouldn’t stay still.

I saw something on TikTok that hit harder than expected: don’t break your heart trying to protect others. This is about overgiving, expecting yourself from other people, and learning that not everyone is built with the same level of care you are.

I keep asking myself who I’d be without the trauma. Without the loss, the foster homes, the abandonment, the versions of me that had to survive too early. This isn’t a polished answer. It’s me sitting with the question and not looking away.