“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Is this your shop?”
I smiled.
“Yes.”
“Did you build it?”
I looked at the sign above us.
“I did.”
Rick smiled.
“That’s cool.”
I put my arm around both of them.
“You know something?”
“What?”
“Sometimes people will tell you that you can’t become something.”
They looked at me.
“But you don’t have to prove them wrong.”
Rick frowned.
“Why not?”
“Because proving them wrong shouldn’t be your goal.”
I looked at the shop.
“Building a life you’re proud of should be.”
Years earlier, Laura had told me I would never make real money.
At the time, I thought money was the thing I needed to prove her wrong.
It wasn’t.
The real victory wasn’t the $7,018.
It wasn’t the insurance investigation.
It wasn’t Brent’s downfall.
And it certainly wasn’t watching my ex-wife regret leaving me.
The real victory was much quieter.
It was waking up every morning knowing that the business I walked into belonged to me.
It was being able to look my sons in the eyes and know I had never compromised myself to keep someone else’s approval.
And it was finally understanding that the man Laura once told would never go anywhere had already gone somewhere.
