You Are Not Your Past.

The Years After Graduation Hardened Me Into Someone Quite Different From The Strutting Graduate Who Left Campus That Day Headed For New York City, Ready To Offer The World His Talent. The World, I Discovered. Was Not All That Interested.

Sometimes, Kids Want You To Hurt The Way They Hurt.

Bad News Has No Limits. We Often Feel It Should, Like A Rainstorm That Can't Possibly Get Any Heavier. But A Storm Can Always Worsen, & The Burdens Of Life Can Too.

I Hope You Never Hear Those Words. Your Mom. She Died. They Are Different Than Other Words. They Are Too Big To Fit In Your Ears. They Belong To Some Strange, Heavy, Powerful Language That Pounds Away At The Side Of Your Head, A Wrecking Ball Coming At You Again And Again, Until Finally, The Words Crack A Hole Large Enough To Fit Inside Your Brain. And In So Doing, They Split You Apart.

You're Not Going To Get To College - You're Not Even Going To Be Qualified, Even To Go To A Community College, If You Don't Address The Basic Problem Of Literacy In America. And There's No Reason - No Reason - For Us To Have That Problem.