When I was sixteen, I experienced a violent crime that left me with deep trauma. Whenever I cried alone, I would impulsively take selfies of my tearful face.

Now I am nineteen. I got accepted into the university I had long hoped for, I’ve cut ties with the source of my past suffering, and I am happy.

But the more I moved forward, the more I began to feel that my sixteen-year-old self—frozen in pain—was being left behind, all alone.

So I decided to carve a Noh mask based on one of those crying-face selfies from when I was sixteen. Then, wearing that mask, I went out and did joyful things—I played, I had fun. In a way, my past self was borrowing my present body to enjoy the “now.”

At first, the mask’s expression was a symbol of suffering. But after spending time playing while wearing it, I looked at the mask again—and doesn’t it now seem, somehow, to be smiling just a little?