I really am only one infinitely small part of an aching humanity.

I'm partly somebody else trying to fit in and say the right things and do the right thing and be in the right place and wear what everybody else is wearing. Sometimes I think we're all trying to be shadows of each other, trying to buy the same records and everything even if we don't like them. Kids are like robots, off an assembly line, and I don't want to be a robot!

I’m really cracking. No, I’m beyond cracking. I’m shattered. I’m lost. I’m fragmented.

This morning when I left Mom's parting words were, "Come straight home after school." Wow! Like I'm going to get stoned at 3:30—it doesn't sound so bad at that.

Maybe the new me will be different.

I pretend I've got lots of confidence and I'm a big jock and like that but deep inside I'm a frightened, insecure, can't-make-it failure.

They have accepted me as an individual, as a personality, as an entity. I belong! I am important! I am somebody!