I went to India hoping it would change me — not into someone different, but into someone a little more solid, a little more true. Now I’m home, back in my usual routine, and I can’t quite point to what’s different. And yet something is. Fear is still there, but it no longer feels like a full stop. So I find myself asking: have I changed?

I never part with my passport—until an ashram in India asked me to leave it behind. What I expected to feel was anxiety. What I felt instead surprised me.