Or a teenage girl who loved her brother enough to stop protecting his worst behavior.
I opened my lesson planner and turned to the following week’s assignment.
At the top of a blank page, I wrote a question for my students:
“Can a person change who they are without first accepting what they’ve done?”
I thought about the fighter I used to be, the teacher I had become, and the young man who now faced the consequences of his choices.
Then I picked up my pen and began planning the lesson.
For the first time in seven years, I no longer felt as though I were running from my past.
I had finally found a way to make peace with it.
