If things don't work out the way you want, hold your head up high and be proud. And try again. And again. And again!

How ballsy it was to just assume you know, with one glance, the things another person could live without. As if it was the same for everyone, that simple.

There was no short answer to this; like so much else, it was a long story. But what really makes any story real is knowing someone will hear it. And understand.

You don't have to make things harder then they have to be just to prove a point.

Sitting there with them, it was almost hard to remember when I first came to Perkins, so determined to remember to be a one-woman operation to the end. But that was the thing about taking help and giving it, or so I was learning; there was no such thing as really getting even. Instead, this connection, once opened, remained ongoing over time.

Sure, there was no guarantee any of these things would actually happen as he envisioned. But maybe that wasn‟t the point.It was the planning that counted, whether it ever came to fruition or not.

Your mother won a special reward," she told me, "because everyone had a head in her pictures. We all applauded.