Dear Hospital Room,

Your pristine cream walls once confined me, impounded me, but now they’ve given me my freedom. You took me in when I was sick, when my mind was plagued with depression, and released me down the path I’d lost track of so long ago. You wrapped me in your embrace, but at the time, I didn’t find it comforting. Back then, you were nothing more than my accuser, my undoing. I blamed you for my predicament, for the choices I made that led me to you. It had to be you who took the blame, because I wasn’t willing to find blame in myself. You were my preferred victim. I spent years pinning accusations to the bulletin board of your character. I slandered you, lied about you. And yet, when I was all alone, when I was left with the consequences of my actions, you came to me. You did not abandon me as I’d abandoned you. Instead, you held me close, kept me safe. You protected me, nurtured me back to health before you sent me on my way again. My heart, which once held resentment for you, was left with a warmth I’d long forgotten. A warmth that burned down the walls I’d built to guard myself and replaced them with a bridge. The bright lights on your ceiling were once blinding, torturous, but now they looked as beautiful as the stars in the night sky. I used to hate the memory of you, but now I rejoice in knowing that I would not be the person I am today without you. If not for your presence, your enlightenment, I would not have grown stronger. I would still be walking down the path of self-destruction, but thankfully, you turned me around. I now head towards the bright future I should never have ventured from. Even if it took a few wrong turns to make it in the end, I’m here now, and I won’t drift again. Your memory will stay with me, it will strengthen me, sustain me. Every time I see a wall the color of yours, or feel a warmth similar to the lights that rested above my head that night, I will think of you, my hospital room, and all that you’ve taught me. And I will carry it with me as I move forward. I do hope we meet again, one day, but I warn you, I won’t be the same person I once was. But that’s a good thing. For I once thought of you as an enemy, but you have always been my redemption.