Things That Held Us Up

Viv has always measured her life in color, deadlines, and the quiet pressure to become someone worth remembering. At art school, she's supposed to be thriving; surrounded by talent, possibility, and the promise of a future built on creativity. Instead, she feels like she's slowly disappearing into expectations that don't feel like her own.When her friendship with Shay begins to blur the line between comfort and complication, and the weight of comparison becomes impossible to ignore, Viv is forced to confront a question she's been avoiding for years: what happens when the life you chose stops feeling like yours?Leaving doesn't fix everything. It doesn't magically make her confident, successful, or certain. But it does give her something she hasn't had in a long time; space to breathe, to rebuild, and to figure out what her art means when no one is telling her what it should be.The Things That Held Us Up is a raw, coming-of-age story about friendship, identity, and the quiet unraveling that leads to becoming.