The Games We Play Pt. 2: The Day I Became a Coward and a Hero

How I won my first fight

Another boyhood lesson in toxic masculinity

Fighting was in my nature I suppose — Wrestling with my identity and the expectations of society was an everyday reality

This was a summer sometime in adolescence (I never promised a perfect chronology!). I do remember that it was hot as hell, the harsh Indiana humidity compounded by the heat-trapping qualities of the alleyway blacktop made…