“I came to accept during my freshman year that many of the gaps in my knowledge and understanding were simply limits of class and cultural background, not lack of aptitude or application as I’d feared.”

Until we reach equality in education, we can’t reach equality in the larger society.

When everyone at school is speaking one language, and a lot of your classmates’ parents also speak it, and you go home and see that your community is different -there is a sense of shame attached to that. It really takes growing up to treasure the specialness of being different.

There are no bystanders in this life.

I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences.

Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.

Don’t be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.

Pretending to be a princess is fun, but it is definitely not a career.

I do know one thing about me: I don’t measure myself by others’ expectations or let others define my worth.

Remember that no one succeeds alone. Never walk alone in your future paths.

You can’t dream unless you know what the possibilities are.

If your child marches to a different beat, a different drummer, you might just have to go along with that music. Help them achieve what’s important to them.

It really takes growing up to treasure the specialness of being different.

If I write a book where all I’ve ever experienced is success, people won’t take a positive lesson from it. In being candid, I have to own up to my own failures, both in my marriage and in my work environment.

Some people choose not to engage the battle and then don’t seek out that kind of success. And others do.

A role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration; his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying, “Yes, someone like me can do this.”

If the system is broken, my inclination is to fix it rather than to fight it. I have faith in the process of the law, and if it is carried out fairly, I can live with the results, whatever they may be.

My entire life people have told me about my sexuality. People have shamed me for things they know nothing about. I want to say thank you to those of you who stand for love and acceptance.

When the relationship you’re in becomes unhealthy for you, don’t look the other way. Always accept the truth in your eyes, even when it’s not in your favor.

Petals and thorns grew hand in hand, realizing themselves, the oneness in them didn’t seem afar!

The glass is broken into particles that now accept themselves as art.

Accept me for who I am because this all I can be.

I accept the things I cannot change.

Nothing easier than being who you are.

I always knew you loved the ocean from the way you dived in and out of me.