Every once in a while you’ll surprise yourself. That’s proof you still haven’t read the last page of you.

You are not finished, and the evidence turns up whenever you do something you would have sworn you would not. A courage you did not know about, a patience that appeared under pressure, an interest arriving out of nowhere at twenty-five. Each of those is a correction to the description you have been carrying around.

When you surprise yourself next, take it seriously instead of writing it off as a fluke. Ask what it suggests your usual account of yourself was missing. Holding the description loosely leaves room for whatever arrives after it.