The Confessions

"I ignored a homeless man who asked me for help on a cold night because I was in a hurry. Not the first time I have walked past someone in need. But that particular night, the particular cold, the particular look on his face. I think about it still."

"I told my family I could not make it home for Christmas one year because of work. I stayed home alone by choice. I just needed to not perform happiness for one year. Nobody knows that. They think I was miserable being away. I was the most peaceful I had been in years."

"I shared private messages with someone I should not have. Nothing illegal. But they were shared in intimacy and trust and I shared them in a moment of showing off. When I realised what I had done I felt physically sick. The person never found out."

"I once had the chance to reconcile with someone I had hurt badly. They reached out and I did not respond. I told myself I was not ready. I was not ready for years. By the time I was ready I could not find them. That silence is something I will always regret."

"I never told my therapist the real reason I started seeing them. I told a version that was true but not the whole truth. We worked for two years on the presenting issue. The real one I have never said to anyone."

"I have never told my children I struggled with their early years. That the relentlessness of it nearly broke me. They are teenagers and I present as a parent who found it natural and joyful. I did find joy. I also found despair. They should probably know both are possible."

"I told my husband the reason I did not want children was medical. It is not medical. I simply do not want them and was afraid he would leave if I said so plainly. He deserved honesty and I gave him a story."

"I let my younger sister take the blame for something I broke when we were children. My mother was furious with her for weeks. We are in our forties now and I have never told her. She would laugh about it I think. But somehow I cannot find the words."

"I was offered a role in another country that would have changed my life. I turned it down because my mother was unwell. She recovered fully and lived another twelve years. She never knew I had turned it down for her. I never told her because I did not want her to feel guilty."

"I wrote a negative anonymous review of my former employer that was not entirely fair. I was angry when I wrote it. That review is still up there and still affecting their recruitment. I have considered removing it and have not."