I swung from one place to the next, sometimes backward, sometimes forward, capitalizing on my own momentum, knowing that at some point my arms—or, more accurately, my quivering bank balance, accessed through foreign ATMs—would give out, and I’d fall to the ground.

We all waited on an afterlife. Only I planned to be alive for mine.

I know firsthand how critical support systems are.

Maintaining my dignity is so important for me.

I think that I find a lot of my healing out in the world.

I think it's the human spirit inside of all of us that has an enormous capacity to survive.

Every day I have many choices to make about who I want to be.