There I was, sitting in a chair while someone hacked off my hair. Not exactly the spa day I’d imagined. I was shaking from nerves as the nurse finished cutting off my shoulder-length hair, lathered my head, and shaved me completely bald. And that’s when the little voice in my head said, What on earth have you signed up for?

I was walking the greenbelt through the woods on what should have been an ordinary day. An ordinary walk. The air was soft, the trees steady and familiar, the path one I’d taken countless times before. And yet… something felt different.