And I understood that we were no longer early.

We were late, and we needed help that I could not provide alone.

I want to say something about that realization, because it was important, and because it runs against the way people expect a story like this to go.

A person with my background might be expected to believe she could handle everything herself, that her training made her sufficient, that she did not need anyone.

The opposite was true, and knowing it was true was itself a kind of training.