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My parents, who were split up, were so good at keeping my environment strong and keeping everything around me not focused on the fact that we were poor. They got me culture. They took me to museums. They showed art to me. They read to me. And my mother drove two hours a day to take me to University Elementary School.

I think my parents were really smart parents. I think they were, actually, pretty progressive for the time. The one thing that they really wanted me to know is what makes me tick, what I am about, how I approach life. And I think what my parents really wanted for me was for me to be who I am.

I think my parents undoubtedly influenced me on some level.

I was quietly rebellious. My parents thought I was very good but secretly I did things like saying I was staying in one place and going somewhere else instead. My older sister was openly rebellious and would tell my parents where to go, but I never did that.

When I was learning by myself, despite my parents, despite my teachers, despite society, when I was fighting for building my life as a young wire walker at age 16, I didn't have feelings, I had certainties.

My parents made me believe I could do anything I wanted to do. They were really into empowering me.

I had phenomenal parents. They kept me very grounded, and I lived a normal life.

My parents, Gary and Patricia, let me be in my world. They never told me what I couldn't do. It helped me adapt in a positive way.

I was the youngest child and got a lot more freedom than my brother and sister. I used to wander, doing my own thing under the radar, but I didn't get in bad, bad trouble.

Talking with other parents really gave me some lessons that I try to hold on to now, as a parent of two boys.