Which is why I’ll be going to school in Oregon to become a social worker. To work with kids to make sure they know they’re not alone. So they know everything is going to be okay. The scared ones. The lost ones. The angry ones. All of them. I’ll start there. One at a time. It’s not going to be easy work. I’ve talked with Georgia Ehrlichman, my former social worker (and Dom’s), many times about it. She tells me that the job makes her cry a lot. That there are times when bad things happen and there is nothing you can do about it. Where kids are put back into situations that aren’t good for them and there’s nothing you can do about it. She says those are the ones that are the hardest. And that it happens more than she cares to think about. And there’s nothing that can be done about it. As a matter of fact, she did everything she could to try to talk me out of it. “It’s a hard life,” she told me over the phone, “for the kids and those trying to help them. You’re underpaid, underappreciated, and see the worst in people on a daily basis. I’ve seen a child whose mother put her cigarettes out on her arms. I’ve seen children who’ve been pimped out by their parents in exchange for drugs. This isn’t easy work, Tyson. It never is.”

“But is it worth it?” I asked her, my voice shaking.

“Every bit of it,” she said. “If you can help one kid, then yes. It’s worth it.”

“Then that’s what I’ll work for.”

She sighed. “And you’ll do great at it.”

And I will.

It’s not fame. It’s not glamor. It’s doing what’s right.

And hell, I have the rest of my life to take over PETA and the rest of the world. I’ve got to start somewhere. Might as well be where I’m needed the most.

Bear wasn’t pleased about this decision, but I think he understands now. I think part of him was just relieved that I’d be coming back home.

Yeah. I’m not moving in with Dominic. At least not yet. We’ll get there. Eventually. We want to get Ben used to the idea of me in his routine again, though Dom seems to think it’ll happen quickly, just like it did before. I’m not going to be his father. He already has one of those. And a mother too. Instead, I’ll be whatever he needs me to be. His friend. His brother. His caretaker. I’ll watch over him as if he were my own. Because he is. He’s a part of me now. Bear said once that family isn’t defined by blood. It’s defined by those who make us whole, who make us who we are.

He’s a smart one, that Bear. Sometimes.

So, you see, I’m not giving anything up. I’m gonna do what I think I’m meant to do surrounded by the people I’m meant to be with. I think it was inevitable. I can stand on my own, and I can carve my own path, but I’m not whole without my family. They’re the ones who have made me who I am and have helped me to see who I’m supposed to be.