I tread carefully when I turn my gaze to the past. It is too easy to look back through the lens of sorrow, to see only the shadows and feel the impulse to cast it all aside, to burn it down and walk away. But when I pause, when I let the memories settle instead of rushing past them, I begin to see more clearly. There were many good times back there—moments of laughter, moments of love—and there were lessons too, each one carving a line into the man I have become.