“And what kind of business?”
“I’m not sure. I was wondering about buying a business or just setting up something simple online or maybe a couple digital companies.”
“Most people start with one,” she noted, laughing.
He grinned. “I’d set up a couple and hope to get lucky on one. If I can get into the right business, it could be good.”
She nodded. “Well, if you understand what you’re doing,” she noted, “you’re ahead of the game already.”
“Understanding what I’m doing and doing it right are two different things. I don’t have any practical business experience, but I’m willing to learn, and I’m a fast learner. Plus, I have some money set aside to tide me over, until I get a business up and running.”
“And that is a huge blessing,” she stated, with a nod. “I don’t even know that you realize how much of one.”
“Probably not,” he admitted, “as it’s been brought home to me time and time again that I don’t really see myself quite the same way that other people do.”
“And I think that’s true for everyone,” she added, with a smile. “Yet it sounds like you’ve already got some of this figured out.”
“Some of it, yes,” he agreed, with a lopsided smirk. “I just don’t know quite what the finished look will be.”
“Does it matter?”
“In some ways, yes.” He hesitated and then added, “I get that, for some people, it probably doesn’t matter how well I end up on the physical spectrum, but I would like to be the best that I can be, and I want that to look very close to normal.”
She settled back. “And why is that?”
He looked at her and shrugged. “I don’t know that awhyis in there,” he replied in confusion. “I just know that I’d like to be as close to normal as I can be.”
“And yet you say,normal, as in, you don’t say,as good as you can be.”
“Well, I said that first.” He stopped, then frowned. “Now you’ll tell me something is wrong with the way I worded it.”
“Not so much that,” she explained. “I just want to make sure, whatever it is you’re looking at doing, that you do it for you and not for somebody else.”
At that, he got her meaning. “Meaning that I want to be normal so that other people see me as normal?”
“That’s my question to you. Why isnormalthe important part?”
“I guess so that I don’t feel like I’m different,” he murmured. “That I’m as good as, if not better than”—he shrugged—“I was before. I’m as good as anybody else. In fact, in certain military terms, I’m better than most. I was always a strong, fit healthy male, and I’d like to get back to that.”
“Good,” she said. “Getting back to that sounds like a great idea. Just make sure you’re getting back to it and not trying to become it just so that you can look good.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No, not at all. One is you regaining something that you had at one point in time—that healthy, strong, physically fitbody. Another one is so that you don’t end up looking other than normal,” she murmured. “As if you’re trying to do it for somebody else.”
“Ah, so back to that needing to do things for the right reason.”
She nodded. “It’s very important, particularly when it comes to your healing.”
He winced. “And every time I take a step forward, it seems like I’m sliding even further backward.”
“Not at all,” she said warmly. “You’re making incredible progress. Don’t ever forget that.”
“Now you sound like Shane,” he murmured.
“Does that matter?”
“No. Maybe not. Everyone here is always so positive, so encouraging, that it surprises me sometimes. But you’ve definitely given me something more to think about.”