“Everyday I receive a lesson that teaches me that I can’t let what others think of me define me.”

“I can’t think. I can’t work or sleep. My body aches for you. I can make you want me again. Let me try.”

“One of the things my parents taught me, and I'll always be grateful as a gift, is to not ever let anybody else define me; that for me to define myself . . . and I think that helped me a lot in assuming a leadership position.”

“I use the words you taught me. If they don't mean anything any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent.”

“I have come to realize that what is important is not my loss and the pain it caused but the fact that I have picked myself up (with help), taken the memories and the lessons, and becoming the woman they have wanted me to become.The fact that I have lost those I love is not what defines me. What defines me is the fact that I have survived and now live, despite the pain and with memory of their love.”

“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.”