When Hurricane Harvey swept through Houston’s Bay Area, I didn’t lose everything as some neighbors did, but the storm left me unsettled. Returning to my classroom after two weeks, the familiar room felt foreign, as if loss had seeped into the walls. I wondered what to tell my students—many carrying grief far heavier than mine. Monday couldn’t simply be about supply and demand curves or notes on economic systems; it would be about finding steady ground again. Life’s storms—floods, illness, even loss—disrupt more than markets. They reshape us. Pain is real, but so is growth. Even in darkness, there’s light enough to take another step.
