I would warn any minority student today against the temptations of self-segregation: take support and comfort from your own group as you can, but donโt hide within it.
Sonia SotomayorAn alcoholic father, poverty, my own juvenile diabetes, the limited English my parents spoke - although my mother has become completely bilingual since. All these things intrude on what most people think of as happiness.
Sonia SotomayorI do know one thing about me: I don't measure myself by others' expectations or let others define my worth.
Sonia SotomayorThe truth is that since childhood I had cultivated an existential independence. It came from perceiving the adults around me as unreliable, and without it I felt I wouldn't have survived. I cared deeply for everyone in my family, but in the end I depended on myself.
Sonia Sotomayor