In the parking lot after, Marcus sat on the curb and stared at nothing.
That was the real turning point.
“I thought this was just my life now,” he said.
I sat beside him. “It was your life. It doesn’t have to be the rest of it.”
He looked at me for a long time.
Then he said, very quietly, “I don’t know how to let people do things for me.”
“I know,” I said. “Neither did I.”
That was the real turning point.
Soon he was helping train coaches at our new center.
The next months were not magical. He was suspicious. Then grateful. Then embarrassed for being grateful. Physical therapy made him sore and mean for a while. His consulting work turned into regular work, but he had to learn how to be in rooms full of professionals without assuming he was the least educated person there.
Soon he was helping train coaches at our new center. Then mentoring injured teens. Then speaking at events when nobody else could say things as plainly as he could.
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