Aaron, thank you for sharing your story — a powerful one that really moved me. I checked out your profile and saw that you joined recently, but the story you shared there and this one you shared here in the comments are evidence of a great writer and a thoughtful mind. I hope you will copy and paste this comment into a new Medium story, and argue with it and fiddle with it and grow with it. Then turn it into a poignant story that you will send to Human Parts. It’s a worthy story to be told, and you are worthy of being loved and understood.