Epilogue: Enough
I did not walk back toward applause.
I did not walk back toward recognition.
I walked back toward work that mattered.
For years, I had allowed Roy’s voice to sit too close to my own thoughts.
Little office job.
Desk work.
Not important.
Small words from a man who needed me small so he could feel large.
But that evening changed something in me.
Not because people clapped.
Not because a program would carry my name.
Because I finally understood that usefulness is not the same as invisibility.
Quiet work can still change lives.
Patient explanations can still become lifelines.
And a woman does not become somebody only when someone else approves of her.
She was somebody all along.
For the first time in a very long time, that was enough.