" Everything Rett had learned about being a man was so wrong. So completely wrong. Sometimes, being a man was surrendering everything to another, giving them absolute power over you, putting your fate entirely in their hands. And then accepting whatever decision came of it.

The coward, the boy, would shy from that and run away from it. The boy would be selfish and want to always make the decision, to control it, to be in the lead. Rett now saw himself doing that at every critical point in his life. He could play back every time he had done that in the past, but now he could see it through different eyes, and it was shameful to him.

The man knew when to surrender, to yield. "

― J.F. Smith , The Last Day Of Summer