Trigger Warning: This story contains details about childhood sexual abuse.

We who have secrets keep them for many reasons. We keep them out of shame. We keep them out of fear. We keep them to protect those we love most in the world. What we don’t realize in our well-intentioned rationalization, is that after we have buried them in the attics of our souls and convinced ourselves to carry on, they take on a life of their own. Growing like barnacles on the underbelly of a ship until the ship is impeded in how it sails. And we don’t know why. I almost kept my secret.