I have never felt this great before in my entire life.

Good days after bad stretches don't feel like ordinary good days. They feel disproportionate.

The first proper shower after a hospital stay is the famous example. Nothing about it is remarkable except hot water and standing up unassisted, and people remember it for twenty years.

That isn't exaggeration. A body that has been somewhere difficult recalibrates what counts as great, and the scale it comes back with is more accurate than the one it left with.

Whatever today gives you gets measured against everything you went through to reach it.