Content Warning: This section contains descriptions of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of surviving a school shooting.

Adapting and adjusting to PTSD is the primary mechanism of growth in Simon’s life. When Simon first talks about that day, he does so in the third person, as though he has to mentally remove himself from it in order to talk about it: “He’s a third-person kid. He’s light-years away. But sometimes I’m still frozen inside him. He’s a still image so his lungs don’t work so good, and I have to tell him how to breathe” (148). Initially, Simon wants to hide the truth of his past and his resultant PTSD symptoms out of embarrassment and a longing for normalcy. As time goes on and more people find out who he is, Simon sees that there is no point in trying to hide or fight his past. Instead, he must accept that those experiences have shaped and influenced the person he is now. Simon learns to find the strength to continue being an active participant in his own life while carrying the trauma of his past.

Simon is the only survivor of a school shooting and was piled underneath his friend’s bodies to survive.