You don't feel like smiling? Then what? Force yourself to smile. Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy.

I'd like to think of my self as not melancholic at all, I think I'm a pretty cheerful person, really.

I am in a mixed race marriage myself, and I have a mixed race son....The racial perception interest is probably always going to be there to some extent.

Being asked, "Where are you REALLY from?" It makes one feel OTHERED.

I would never tell myself, you have to write 20 pages today or something. But I do try to show up. Read what I wrote, fix things.

You don't feel like smiling? Then what? Force yourself to smile. Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy.

There is something about Midwest in general, that has kind of an underdog quality.