We're encouraged here to be different and not for the sake of being different, it's for the sake of being yourself and recognizing the sum of the parts that creates you rather than shunning some to appear more authentic or hiding some to appear cool or hip.

Like many of the statistical subjects about whom you read, I've been surrounded by drugs, violence, hopelessness, and the general malaise that seems to be the only thing that gets our city press.

The same conditions that seem to be characterized as disadvantages, hinderances, and pitfalls are the conditions that made me and most of my friends mentally fit, aware, determined, quick on our feet, and focused human beings.