Anytime I meet someone new, especially in groups, I can immediately tell you all the ways we are different. All the ways I don’t fit in. All the reasons they probably won’t include me.

The truth is, it never gets easier. Spending so much time and effort slowly building a life only to tear it all down again a few years later. Carefully crafting friendships, exposing vulnerabilities, risking rejection -- it's a delicate dance starting from scratch while desperately trying to make it all feel like a continuation.