I wanted to write back, to tell the student that he had changed MY life,
but the letter was anonymous. It was too personal and revealing. The
student explained that his depression was the result of sexual abuse by a
close relative, that it filled him with deep anger, and that anger had
essentially kidnapped him. He was a “prisoner of the past,” sitting in
the back row of the classroom, unable to concentrate, and unable to
experience the joy and fulfillment of living in the “now.”
