We all think people deserve second chances. None of us are perfect.

All I wanted was to be involved in politics and government.

I hope there is nothing about me that people have a big problem with. You know, I like to think of myself as lovable.

The library of my elementary school had this great biography section, and I read all of these paperback biographies until they were dog-eared. The story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Madame Curie and Martin Luther King and George Washington Carver and on and on and on.

My mother would organize huge parties for my elementary school classmates. To prepare, she would go back to the bakery in her old neighborhood of Inwood and get special shamrock cookies. Hawaiian Punch was served and we had shamrock napkins. It was a lot of fun.

We all think people deserve second chances. None of us are perfect.

I just want people to know you can get through stuff. I hope people can see that in what my life has been and where it is going.