“Courage is one thing that no one can ever take away from you.”

“When one thing takes another away, what do we call that?” she asked my class. “Homicide!” I called out”

“If you truly own who you are, no one can use you against you.”

“Don’t listen to what people tell you because they’ll try to bring you down. And don’t listen to yourself, either, because yourself will try to bring you down even more so than anyone else. As long as you just put all your energy into one thing, it can happen.”

“Even in the worst of situations-even when it seems no one in the world appreciates you-as long as you have hope, everthing can get better”

“But one of the big lessons I have learned from my journey is you can’t please everyone, so don’t try.”

“My grandpa had a saying before he died: You can hope in one hand, shit in the other, and see which is filled first.”