Chapter 3:
She thought deciding to act would make things easier. It didn't. The first place she visited barely looked at her. The second told her to come back another day. By the third, her confidence had already begun to fade.
She smiled politely, thanked them, and stepped back onto the street, feeling smaller than before. Each rejection felt heavier than the last. She wondered if she had waited too long, if she had missed her chance at something better.
Still, she kept walking. Her feet hurt, her stomach ached, but something inside her refused to let her turn back. For the first time, failure didn't stop her — it followed her, but it didn't control her.
By evening, she returned home exhausted and empty-handed. But as she sat in the quiet room again, she realized something important. Today had not been useless. She had tried. And trying, she discovered, was its own kind of courage.