Hannah’s story is one of those stories that will be featured in my first book (written in German) coming out in fall 2023. Below is a sneak peek. Of course, this story will finally be on this blog in English language too.
If you want to read a full story, consider those of Julian (long one) or Hana (short one).
“Why did you get involved with today?” I ask.
“What I got myself into, I don’t really know,” she says. I don’t know either.
An hour earlier, I reread her message:
‘I’ve been a Young Carer since about the age of eleven. I have always taken care of my mother because she had many strokes of fate and accidents. And I still do up to this day. Almost no one knows that I do so much, and except for my best friend, I have told almost no one. I always took care of everyone else, but never really took care of myself.’
After that day in August 2022, we meet four additional times until January 2023. And there’s one thing I’m glad about: it didn’t turn out to be a heavy story, but a story about the strong bond of friendship: how two teenagers in an environment of difficult family circumstances confide everything to each other, grow from it, break, and find each other again as young adults.
“I walk through the busy streets, accompanied by a question that has long been unanswered: who am I really? Is it the experiences that make us who we are? Or our feelings? Or just our actions? It hurts to admit it, but in the last few years I’ve been so closed off from life. I want to live again, I’m determined to do that.”