Looking Back

When Elle looks back, she saw a girl standing at the beginning of a life she did not yet know how to carry.

A daughter before she understood what it meant to be one.

A niece before she learned how much of herself could be seen through other people's eyes.

A granddaughter before she knew the weight of being the first.

Elle grew up around expectations, stitched together by love, responsibility and all the quiet things no one thought to name. Moments that were carried too young, moments that were cherished so deeply, and moments that she wished she could return to - not to change them, but to hold that younger version of herself a little closer.

And now, years later, Elle looks back.

Not with regret, but with tenderness.

Because somewhere between who everyone needed her to be and who she was learning to become, would Elle look back?