What I do know is that wondering why you survived don't help you survive.

New Yorkers, I figured, just pretended to be unfriendly.

If you want to be treated like a mother, act like one.

I found out that people are incredibly compassionate and kind. It really changed my view of the world.

Horses were never wrong. They always did what they did for a reason, and it was up to you to figure it out.

You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

Since Mom wasn't exactly the most useful person in the world, one lesson I learned at an early age was how to get things done, and this was a source of both amazement and concern for Mom, who considered my behavior unladylike but also counted on me. "I never knew a girl to have such gumption," she'd say. "But I'm not too sure it's a good thing.