Chapter 14 - Emily’s School Assignment
In third grade, Emily received an assignment.
Write about a time you solved a problem.
She brought the paper home.
I expected something about math.
Or soccer.
Or building a science project.
Instead, she wrote about the gas station.
She didn’t include every painful detail.
She wrote:
I was lost and scared. I remembered my mom said to find a safe adult who was working somewhere. I went into a store and told the worker my mom’s phone number. He called her. My mom came. I learned that asking for help is not being weak.
I read the last sentence twice.
“Can I keep this forever?”
She laughed.
“It’s homework.”
“After your teacher grades it.”
“Fine.”
Her teacher wrote at the bottom:
Excellent problem-solving and courage.
Emily received an A.
I framed a copy.
May you like
Not because I wanted to preserve the worst day of her childhood.
Because I wanted to preserve what she had learned from surviving it.
