Liberty finds freedom in college:

she isn't bound by the arbitrary rigidity of high school

and the world unfurls, bright and luxurious,

wherein her tunnel vision

widens considerably to show off a

Vast, nuanced world.

Yet somehow, Liberty still

fears and cries and emotes and hurts;

the pain from high school

was supposed to end upon receiving a diploma

yet here Liberty was,

on the cusp of something more:

having left Degrassi at least two springs ago

left her considerably happier,

she was fitting in quite well (thank you very much!)

away from the toxicity of immaturity and cliques.

Still, she was haunted by nightmares of JT,

which were all too vivid and real, leaving her

awake in the middle of the night in a freezing sweat,

gasping at air that couldn't fill her lungs fast enough;

anxiety and hopelessness clutching desperately on her coattails

as she had flashbacks to the memories

tainting that entire day, the one

that should've been swirling

with profuse meaning and importance,

of intimacy and kindness,

of the celebration of another year.

A gaping hole of bleak emotional barriers

existed where trusting others

should've been;

she gains the reputation

of the ice queen at college - - -

aloof and quiet and vaguely sad,

with an indecipherable heaviness about her

that people are fearful to ask about.

when she talks to a college counselor

about the feelings she suppresses,

there's finally a name to how she feels:

comorbid PTSD and depression,

which explains all too much.

Liberty is ready to thaw.