A testimony is proof that the trial did not receive the final sentence.

A hard chapter ends up telling a different story once you are past it. While you are inside, it feels like the verdict, the thing that will define what your life amounts to. Being able to speak about it afterwards is itself the evidence that it did not get to decide.

You do not have to be past something to hold this loosely. If you are in it, note what you are learning to carry. If you are past it, consider telling someone still inside, since the account is worth more than you think.