Standing in the airport terminal before my flight I remembered the night I waited outside Danielle’s house watching the life I thought I owned slip quietly beyond my reach. Back then I believed survival meant enduring humiliation with patience, yet experience taught me that survival eventually transforms into strength, and strength eventually creates choices no one else can manage for you.
When I returned home from Europe Grant Walker met me at the airport and wrapped me in a warm embrace before saying, “You look happy and certain about where you belong.”
I smiled and replied honestly, “I finally understand that belonging starts with refusing to disappear from your own life.”