How we learn to leave

Paths Apart

The environment is bright and colourful, but she herself lacks colour in her eyes and demeanour. She seems sad and exhausted, as though the star representing her dreams has slowly turned into delusions. Even the stripes on her shirt resemble paths stretching farther and farther apart as life goes on, capturing the sadness of people drifting away from one another, each following a different route.

Abstract mixed-media collage made from torn paper, bold numbers, stars, scribbled lines and blocks of blue, orange, pink and yellow. — A rush of colour, numbers and unfinished marks, scattered like thoughts that have not yet settled into meaning. · In Pieces

LIFE, REARRANGED

Leaving can make life feel temporarily unreadable. Familiar things break into fragments: dates, colours, places, half-finished thoughts. Nothing has completely disappeared, but the pieces no longer fit together in the same way.

Mixed-media collage with pressed purple and red flowers, green leaves, torn paper, blue and orange stars, and cut-out text reading, “How does one say goodbye to an entire city? — Flowers, leaves and scraps of colour · How does one say goodbye to an entire city?

Pressed Goodbyes

The flowers have been picked from where they once grew and pressed into something that can be carried. They remain beautiful, but changed. In the same way, learning to leave means accepting that we cannot take an entire city, friendship or version of ourselves with us. We preserve what we can, while the rest slowly becomes memory.

Hand-drawn bedroom scene on torn, singed paper, showing an unmade bed, clothes hanging from a wardrobe, books, bottles and a wall crowded with colourful artwork. — Small evidence of a life · The Room We Leave Behind

WHAT THE WALLS REMEMBER

The wall opens, revealing the unmade bed, the clothes on the door and the pictures covering the walls. Leaving the room is not just closing a door; it’s saying goodbye to the version of yourself who lived in it.