We were celebrating with friends on a warm July evening. There was food, laughter, children playing, elders telling stories, and fireworks filling the dark sky.
In the photograph, I am smiling beside the person I love. My body has just stopped bracing, and will brace again soon.
The sounds of Independence Day are never only festive for me. Growing up during the war in Croatia taught my body to associate explosions with danger.
Moments before the photo, the noise had reached my chest, flooded my nervous system, and sent my breath underwater.
The fear remained in my experience throughout the evening, but each calming technique helped the present become louder than the past.