Half-year recap — nothing to show off

At the end of June, Vy is lying in bed scrolling Facebook when her whole feed fills up with "first half of the year" recaps. One friend shows off a master's degree, another a new job at double the pay, another a set of wedding photos. Vy — 24, a content writer — reads through it all, then quietly locks her phone and lays it face-down on the table.

It isn't that she isn't happy for them. It's just that when everyone has something shiny to post and you don't, the ache arrives very softly, and very real. They have things to show off. Vy can't think of what she has.

She opens Notes, meaning to write her own recap. She types exactly one line, then freezes. Her past six months: quit her old job because of a toxic boss, two months unemployed, now a new job paying two million less than before, a breakup back in March. Lost the job, lost the person — that's it. She deletes the line she just typed and closes the app.

Then that night, lights off, thinking back over the half-year, she notices something else. She got back on her feet after leaving that toxic place. She took care of herself through two months of unemployment without asking anyone for a single đồng. She went back to work, even at lower pay. Nothing to show off the way others do — but so much to be grateful to herself for. She opens Notes again, this time writing it just for herself.

No one saw those six months. But she remembers every single day.

Have you ever felt you had nothing to post, when really you'd already lived through so much?