-Karthik Gurumurthy
I’ve come to realize that my life story isn’t something that happened to me. It’s something I’m still writing.
For a long time, I told certain chapters the same way over and over. The contract that didn’t get renewed was proof I wasn’t capable. The relationship that ended was time I’d wasted. The things I didn’t have growing up were reasons to feel small. I repeated these versions so often that I started to believe they were the only true ones.
But when I sit quietly with those memories now, I notice something. The events themselves haven’t changed, but I have. And the person I am today can look back and see things the younger me couldn’t.
When my contract wasn’t renewed, it was painful, but it also forced me to ask what I really wanted. The breakup hurt deeply, yet it taught me where my boundaries are and how to speak for myself. The hard parts of my childhood made me more resourceful, more patient, and kinder to people who are struggling. None of this erases the pain. It just means the pain isn’t the whole story.
I used to think changing how I told my story was a kind of dishonesty. Now I see it differently. I’m not rewriting what happened. I’m choosing what to carry forward. I can keep the lesson and set down the shame. I can let the past stay in the past, without letting it decide my future.
And I’m allowed to keep revising. The story I tell at forty doesn’t have to match the one I told at twenty. Growth means I’ll keep seeing old chapters in new light.
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