There is something tremendously liberating in the fall of the other shoe. The terrible anticipation which had eaten away at one for such a long time is gone at last. Until it lifted from me, I had not the slightest idea of what a burden it had been. Perhaps this is how most journey through their lives, upstanding in the face of future imagined terrors, shoulders thrown back despite the steadily mounting pressure. Until some sort of resolution is reached – the shoe falls, or the back breaks, I suppose.

Now? Now I am free of that, at least. The more frightening thought occurs: what am I to do with my new-found freedom?