That day didn’t fix everything.
He did not erase the years.
But he shifted the balance.
In the following weeks, my name circulated. An academic publication. An offer of a funded master’s program. A full scholarship for a prestigious program.
Not because my parents changed their minds.
Because I had never stopped moving forward.
One evening, a few months later, Victoria called me.
“Are you angry with me?”
Long silence.
“No. But I won’t let you define my worth anymore.”
She took a deep breath.
“I always believed they were right.”
“Me too, at first,” I admitted.
Perhaps that’s the hardest part: unlearning what those we love have taught us to believe.
The rest is on the next page
