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

Forgiving is not an easy thing to do.

Because that’s the thing about the exact moment when you get somewhere that has required effort: There’s a freeze-frame instant of total fulfillment, when every expectation has been met and the world is perfect.

I don't think I'm unusual in that, in my 20s, like many people, I felt invincible.

After being in captivity for so long, I can't begin to describe how wonderful it feels to be home in Canada.

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.

I know firsthand how critical support systems are.