So it has been with the pain in my heart. Focusing on it has brought a sense of satisfaction. I have felt justified in allowing myself to experience this pain because I know that what happened was undeniably wrong. And so I - unconsciously or not - have chosen to hone in on the pain again and again.

I was speechless. The very things I had been struggling with from my past had been used to develop traits that I quite literally need in my daily life as a teacher by day and a single mother by night.