I will say that the environment I grew up in was not the most progressive.

Racism is ridiculous no matter where it's coming from.

It's a lot harder to find fault with the mundane details of daily existence when you really, really know on a cellular level that you're going to go, and that this moment, right now, is life. Life isn't what happens to you in 20 years. This moment, right now, is your life.

I will say that the environment I grew up in was not the most progressive.

I'm from the South, so while I personally find it impossible to live there, I still have a fondness for it as a geographical region.

Not everything is going to be successful. To strive for that is really naive. You just do the best you can do.

We live in a time where there's an alienation factor. There's a certain disconnection. We don't have any real sense of community anymore.