In truth, school itself became an escape for me—an escape from Mom and the frequent eruptions of her caustic temper. This was a fact that I acknowledged to myself uneasily, with a deep awareness of how foolish, how melodramatic I was being. I had a good life, I was always told. The best life, one filled with people who loved God and hated evil and would teach me the truth about the world, unlike my misfortunate classmates.
