“So I taught Sunday school and brought dishes to all manner of potlucks and tried to adjust the things I heard from the pulpit to my increasingly incongruent faith.”

“The instructor, Ms. Pease, also taught in the church's religious school, and she had a Sunday school manner at once saccharine and condemnatory.”

“At the potluck, I brought two dishes: knowledge and mashed potatoes and gravy. Guess which one got cleaned out and which one hardly got touched.”

“To the potluck I brought something I randomly found in my fridge. It was the source of the stink.”

“I wrapped my hands around the familiar cup and tried to draw strength from it. It was from Thea's old Moss Rose set, remnant of careful scrimping and saving in her first year of marriage. Yet the mellow old cup now brought me no comfort, only a feeling of helplessness, of time slipping away. Sunday-best dishes gone to everyday and now to mismatched pieces. Like Thea and me”

“I got schooled this year.By everyone.By my little brother...by The Avett Brothers...by my mother, my best friend, my teacher, my father,andbyaboy.a boy that I'm seriously, deeply, madly, incredibly, and undeniably in love with...I got so schooled this year.By a nine-year-old.He taught me that it's okay to live lifea little backwards.And how to laughAt what you would thinkis un-laughable.I got schooled this yearBy a Band!They taught me how to find that feeling of feeling again.They taught me how to decide what to beAnd go be it.I got schooled this year.By a cancer patient.She taught me so much. She's still teaching me so much.She taught me to question.To never regret.She taught me to push my boundaries,Because that's what they're there for.She told me to find a balance between head and heartAnd thenshe taught me how...I got schooled this yearBy a Foster KidShe taught me to respect the hand that I was dealt.And to be grateful I was even dealt a hand.She taught me that familyDoesn't have to be blood.Sometimes your familyare your friends.I got schooled this yearBy my teacherHe taught meThat the points are not the point,The point is poetry...I got schooled this yearBy my father.He taught me that hero's aren't always invincibleAnd that the magicis within me..I got schooled this yearbyaBoy.a boy that I'm seriously, deeply, madly, incredibly, and undeniably in love with.And he taught me the most important thing of all...To put the emphasisOn life.”