My response is that I love the church.

I was in the gym working on my triceps, and I was thinking, just as I did the 50-pound pulldown, I am going to be in better shape by the end of the year [2016] than I've ever been in my life. I really just smiled at the notion: Wow, what a thing.

Dare to be different. Be a pioneer. Be a leader. Be the kind of woman who in the face of adversity will continue to embrace life and walk fearlessly toward the challenge.

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

You cannot be loving when you are blaming. You cannot be loving when you are criticising. You cannot be loving when you are judging.

Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.

For the first time, I wasn't afraid to be smart, and she often stayed after school to work with me.