The teen braced for impact: a lecture, an insult, some tired line about “respect.” Instead, my dad reached for a memory. He talked about being young and strange-looking himself, about the way his hair once made strangers whisper and doors quietly close. He laughed at how sure he’d been that no one would ever understand him—and how wrong that turned out to be when one person finally tried.

He didn’t ask the teen to change. He admired the courage it takes to walk into a world that stares. You could see the teen’s shoulders drop, the armor sliding off as he realized he wasn’t on trial. Curiosity crept in where defensiveness had lived. By the time they parted, nothing dramatic had happened—no big speech, no cinematic hug—just a small, quiet shift. A reminder that sometimes the bravest thing an adult can do is simply refuse to be an enemy.