I was good at digging holes. It was the rest of life I sucked at.

I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles.

be aggressive, BE-BE Aggressive! B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E

Adrenaline kicks you in when you’re starving. That’s what nobody understands. Except for being hungry and cold, most of the time I feel like I can do anything. It gives me superhuman powers of smell and hearing. I can see what people are thinking, stay two steps ahead of them. I do enough homework to stay off the radar. Every night I climb thousands of steps into the sky to make me so exhausted that when I fall into bed, I don’t notice Cassie. Then suddenly it’s morning and I leap on the hamster wheel and it starts all over again.

Kids are mostly very resilient.

It was like looking at a knot, knowing it was a knot, but not knowing how to untie it. I had no map for this life.

The constitution does not recognize different classes of citizenship based on time spent living in the country. I am a citizen, with the same rights as your son, or you. As a citizen, and as a student, I am protesting the tone of this lesson as racist, intolerant, and xenophobic.