I have been; I am no longer Julia Ann Reed

I am a seventeen year old mother. Every single day after completing seven hours of rigorous Advanced Placement classes, I am ready to take on the responsibility of caring for a boy who desperately needs my help in order to grow up. I meet him at the bus stop, take his hand as he descends the steps, re-teach him every day how to open the front door, snack, television, nap. This daily routine is on repeat, never to be interrupted. Time is critical to Ian and one activity starting an instant too late could disrupt his circadian rhythm. Ian lives with a disability. He is twenty years old yet has the mind-set of a ten-year-old. Although I am not his biological mother, I help raise him day by day and, in many ways, he helps raise me.

I have been impatient, I have been judgmental, I have underestimated people, I have wasted days, hours, minutes.

Patience is constantly coaching someone how to do the same thing over and over again, such as opening the front door, without frustration. Patience is sitting by the bedside every day at 3:32 p.m. waiting for someone to fall asleep because they cannot rest without you being right next to them. Patience is the propensity to help, no matter what. Every single day my patience is tested. Every...