"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship." — Louisa May Alcott, Little Women​ In September, we celebrate Labor Day to honor everyone who works hard to keep our country going: cooks, cleaners, truckers, nurses, and night-shift workers. The country runs on their tired hands, and most days we forget to say thank you. Labor Day always takes me back to a holiday weekend of my childhood and what it taught me: it isn't what happens to you but how you respond. I was seven when my parents bought a motel and restaurant in a small town. The whole family pitched in cooking, washing dishes, and cleaning rooms. For our first big holiday weekend, we decorated with red, white, and blue carnations, hoping to draw a big crowd. My parents had thirty-three dollars in their checking account and needed revenue to keep the business running. Instead, a gang of fifty rowdy bikers rolled in, armed and dangerous. ​ They blew through like a front nobody forecasted. They spra...