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I spent a lot of my childhood not fitting in, in a lot of different ways.

I don't know if it's that my own childhood felt brief, or I grew up too fast, or I was pushing myself too much at a young age, but I do feel like I am clinging to a certain childlike quality in myself, as a result of a childhood that was sometimes complicated.

Growing up, I just wanted to be like everyone else. I didn't value or understand the beauty in being different at the time in my life.

I think life experiences are different for people who know what they want as children.

To have your childhood dream realized is a really big deal.

There's slowly been a kind of shift in how we think about childhood. It's like childhood almost extends to 20 or 22 even after the end of college. When I was growing up, there was this expectation that you were on your own now.

For me, the teen years were all about searching for a place for myself, wondering why I seemed so different than everyone else, wondering especially why no one could look past the surface and figure out who I really was underneath.

When our daughter was born, a light went on for me - there was more to life than what I was doing. It felt like being famous for being a paint salesman. It wasn't the dream I was sold on. I'd had enough of it.

You have to look at the discrepancy between what you hoped and imagined and the reality of yourself and all your shortcomings.

It's only in hindsight that you realize what indeed your childhood was really like.