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

I remember a specific moment, watching my grandmother hang the clothes on the line, and her saying to me, 'you are going to have to learn to do this,' and me being in that space of awareness and knowing that my life would not be the same as my grandmother's life.

She is the mother I never had, she is the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person.

Eating more consciously now feels like a way of being. I actually think about how my food got to my plate.

The big secret in life is there is no secret. Whatever your goal. You can get there if you're willing to work.

You must feed your mind with reading material, thoughts, and ideas that open you to new possibilities.

The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be. I believe you can only do this when you stop long enough to hear the whisper you might have drowned out, that small voice compelling you toward the kind of work you'd be willing to do even if you weren't paid. Once you tune out the noise of your life and hear that call, you face the biggest challenge of all: to find the courage to seek out your big dream, regardless of what anyone else says or thinks.