It hurt.
The past hurt.
The past did things to me that I may never fully understand.
It left cuts on my arms,
and burns on my legs;
marks on my memory that blurred the lines between perception and reality.
The past.
My past.

It hurt.

I can’t go back and change it.
I can’t reverse the pain inflicted upon me.
Time moves in one direction:
Forward.
To look back would be a futile attempt at stopping the bleeding before it starts.
So if I have to bleed,
let my wounds tell the story of a woman who survived.
Let the tears I shed speak the words of a warrior who made it through the fire.
For I am Athena.
Goddess of war.
And if my epic tale can give even a single soul the strength to fight another day…

Then the pain that I felt,
so long ago,
the pain of my past was worth it.