Ethan snorted. Noah laughed through his tears. Then Kevin got serious again and took both my hands.
“I’m not telling you what to do, Megan. This is your decision. But if you want to try, we’ll find a way.”
I realized then that nobody had asked me what I wanted in a very long time. It wasn’t that Kevin didn’t care. It was that I had put my own plans away for so long I had stopped mentioning them, even to the people who loved me.
I looked at my sons. They were watching me with their whole faces. And the dream I had buried at sixteen suddenly felt a little less like a grave and a little more like a road.
That Saturday, I took the gray accordion folder out of the closet and spread everything across the kitchen table. The acceptance letter had yellowed at the creases. My old essay, written in purple gel pen, made me wince and smile at the same time.
