Logan sat across from me.<\/p>\n
I asked him why he had never told me about his plans.<\/p>\n
He shrugged.<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
"Try."<\/p>\n
He rubbed his palms together.<\/p>\n
"College costs money. You already work all the time. I didn't want you to think I was asking you to pay for something we couldn't afford."<\/p>\n
I reached across the table.<\/p>\n
"Wanting an education isn't selfish."<\/p>\n
"Maybe not. But pretending we have money we don't have is stupid."<\/p>\n
He wasn't wrong.<\/p>\n
Our financial situation had become increasingly difficult since my divorce.<\/p>\n
I worked at the hospital because the pay was better than most jobs available to me, but the long shifts left me exhausted.<\/p>\n
I had credit card balances, overdue medical bills, and a car that seemed to require repairs every other month.<\/p>\n
I had told Logan that everything was under control.<\/p>\n
He had believed the numbers instead.<\/p>\n
"I can't promise we can afford every school you want," I said. "But I can promise we'll look at every possibility before giving up."<\/p>\n
He watched me carefully.<\/p>\n
"You mean that?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"What if we can't pay?"<\/p>\n
"Then we look for scholarships, financial aid, and affordable programs. We ask questions. We make a plan."<\/p>\n
He looked down.<\/p>\n
"I already missed the deadline."<\/p>\n
"Then we'll find out whether there's another opportunity."<\/p>\n
For several seconds, he said nothing.<\/p>\n
Then he asked a question that broke my heart.<\/p>\n
"Are you disappointed that I want to leave home?"<\/p>\n
I stood up and moved to his side of the table.<\/p>\n
"No, sweetheart. I'm proud that you want to build a future."<\/p>\n
His eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n
"I thought you'd need me here."<\/p>\n
"I need you to grow up into your own life. I don't need you to give it up for mine."<\/p>\n
He covered his face.<\/p>\n
I put my arms around him.<\/p>\n
This time, he hugged me back immediately.<\/p>\n
For the first time since his father left, we talked about the future without pretending that wanting something better was a betrayal.<\/p>\n
Logan sat across from me. I asked him why he had never told me about his plans. He shrugged. "I don't know." "Try." He rubbed his palms together. "College costs … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40520,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40500\/revisions\/40520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}