Then I realized that surviving isn’t about proving you feel no fear.

It’s about learning what to do with it.

I returned to my shift at the dispatch center.

PART 12

My first week back, I asked for shorter shifts.

I hated asking.

I had always been the employee who volunteered for an extra hour when someone called in sick, the one who brought spare pens and never complained when a schedule changed.

But the past weeks had taught me how dangerous it could be to confuse competence with refusing help.