One Step at a Time: Surviving a School Shooting, Rebuilding My Life, and Rediscovering What Matters Most

One Step at a Time is a raw, honest memoir about survival, trauma, and the unglamorous work of rebuilding a life after everything changes.

Kaleb Stoppel was a high school assistant principal who believed deeply in showing up for students and teachers with presence, compassion, and purpose. Then, during a school shooting, he was shot while protecting others. In seconds, his understanding of leadership, safety, and the future shattered.

What followed was not just physical recovery, but a slow reckoning with identity and purpose. The quiet questions that surface in the dark. The loss of what once felt normal. The realization that the life you return to after trauma is never the same one you left.

One Step at a Time is not a story about heroism or going back to who you were. It is an unfiltered account of sleepless nights, silent pain, and learning how to keep showing up when no one is watching. The book explores fear, faith, and the meaning of resilience when survival alone is no longer enough.

With clarity and courage, Kaleb invites readers into the slow, imperfect work of rebuilding from the inside out. This book is for anyone who has ever found themselves wondering how to keep going when life no longer looks the way they expected.

This is more than a story of survival.
It is a reminder that hope can still exist in the middle of the mess.
And that sometimes, the only way forward is one step at a time.