The pages of my journals held the good, the bad, and the ugly of adolescence.

Guarding their safety only further memorialized others’ mistakes without context and kept hurtful words spoken freshly refrigerated.

On the brink of turning 40, the childhood journals I cherished so much needed to go.

Making new friends was not going well.

Miss B knew that there was only one way out — and that was through. Security in oneself took work for me, though, and Miss B learned how to harness it as a superpower.

Her greatest gift was letting me borrow hers for a while, even when she was going through the fight of her life.

People are naturally good, right?  We want to succeed and be kind, patient, and truthful. So, what would cause us to be anything other than that? . . .

Dr. Dare was practicing trauma-informed leadership before its time.

He intuitively (or through experience, perhaps) noticed something was off with me. Instead of threatening me, yelling at me, or kicking me out of class, he did something else.