What If the Hardest People in Your Life Were Your Teachers?

Teachers.

Not villains.

Not projects to fix.

Not names you cross out with a permanent red X.

Teachers.

What if the very people who

unsettled you…

misread you…

undervalued you…

gaslit you…

refused accountability…

withheld respect…

were not sent to destroy you —

but to develop you?

Since 2020, I have been studying communication.

Not studied.

Studying.

Present tense.

Because communication is not a skill you master.

It is a lifelong discipline.

I have trained my eyes to notice:

Tone.

Silence.

Body language.

Facial shifts.

The energy that fills — or drains — a room.

What is said.

What is avoided.

And in the last year, I encountered some of the most difficult people in my life.

People who manipulated narratives.

People who distorted truth.

People who avoided responsibility.

People who diminished.

People who misunderstood — and refused to understand.

And I had to ask myself:

What does leadership look like here?

Because leadership is not proven in calm waters.

It is revealed in friction.

I used to believe leadership was primarily about guiding others well.

Caring well.

Serving well.

But my Tree Leadership Model taught me something deeper.

Leadership begins within.

Roots — Your foundation. Your truth. Your formation. What anchors you before you speak.

Trunk — Your internal “word machine.” The place where belief becomes language, and language becomes behavior.

Branches — How you deliver your message. Tone. Timing. Presence.

Leaves — The outcome. How your words land. How others respond.

Pruning — The humility to uproot what is not fruitful. To examine your own roots when something keeps failing.

That is why I am bringing back Lesson from a Geode.

Because sometimes the geode does not open.

Sometimes it refuses conversation.

Sometimes it chooses pain.

And when that happens — the real leadership begins.

You remove yourself.

You forgive.

You wish them well.

You walk away.

You grieve.

Not because you are weak.

Not because you lost.

But because you refuse to let someone else’s hardness calcify your heart.

Forgiveness is not just about reconciliation.

It is the stewardship of your own soul.

You can want to see someone eat…

just not at your table.

You can release someone…

without reopening access to your life.

You can walk away…

without poisoning their name in rooms they are not in.

You can talk about them…

about what that teacher taught you.

And when you do,

you will notice something.

The sting is gone.

The charge has softened.

The story no longer owns you.

You will feel free.

Because the lesson has been integrated.

You did not become bitter.

You did not become vengeful.

You did not become small.

You became rooted.

And rooted people do not chase closure.

They create it.

They do not need the geode to open.

They let them be.

They do not need apologies to move forward.

They do not need understanding to know the why.

They become the kind of a person who can say:

“I learned. I grew. I pruned. And I am ME.”

That is the work.

That is the evolution.

That is the power of the Tree.

AND...

That is leadership.

That is emotional maturity.

That is peace.

“Geodes are not sent to break you — they are sent to reveal you. Become the person Y-O-U choose to be. Pain is a teacher, not your architect.