I thought I had to show people that I would get in early, stay late or even all night, work on holidays. I didn't want to be the rich kid who was along for a free ride.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My friends and I would get up early and take our horses through the national forest. My mom was very free. It was always 'Out of the house!' There was no watching television on weekends.
I did not want to spend the rest of my life not being able to ride in a nice car.
I worked hard. I worked late. I went in early. I did everything I could to gain an advantage.
When I was 9, my parents let me take a cab to the mall all by myself. I had hardly any money to spend, but I did have a very specific list of things I wanted to do: buy cookies and sit on the furniture at Sears.
You're isolated as a writer, so I always envied people who could get up early and drive to work and fit into society.
I didn't want people to think I'm just in the movies, where you make money and wait around for 13 hours before you get to do 20 minutes of work.
I talked late, swam late, did not learn to ride a bike until college - and might never have walked or learned to drive a car if my parents hadn't overruled my lack of motivation and virtually forced me to embrace both forms of transportation. I suspect I was happy to sit in a corner with a book.
My parents would never throw the kids in first class for the flights; they'd be up front, and we'd be economy - we knew we were lucky just to be travelling.
I wanted more people from my city to be able to have the kind of opportunity that I had.
As a child, I had to get up early for school or work. I'd get ready by myself. I'd set my alarm to wake me up very early in the morning, and be off to work, the family driver driving me every morning. I did it alone, my parents never coming in to wake me up.