This piece explores my initial experience with identity-altering change and how at a certain point, it can no longer be avoided. The process of transformation can be excruciating but ultimately, it is necessary. The version of myself that once served a purpose, now standing in the way. It’s coming face to face with the reality that once I undergo this transformation, I will never be this version of myself again. The old self becomes a distant memory but never a home I can return to. I begin to resist the change causing a disruption in the natural process. It no longer awaits my permission. Now it demands to be felt, to take up space. And I can no longer ignore it. It’s tearing through me. It’s breaking skin.