How a Japanese Folktale Saved Me From Myself

I realized that I had gotten self-love all wrong

Photo: Evgeny Tchebotarev/Pexels

The summer of my senior year kicked me right in the solar plexus. Walled up between sixteen-hour workdays, I found myself brewing the age-old recipe for disaster — pushing people away. The missed calls became dropped texts, and soon everything was replaced with the abysmal silence of a damp workstation. I…