From the age of 10 on, I took a bus an hour across the city to attend specialized public schools, first an arts school and then an academic “college prep” school. I was incredibly fortunate to have these opportunities — they really enabled me to see possibilities beyond my local environment. And one of these possibilities was going to college “back east” — to a selective liberal arts college, the likes of which I had only ever read about in books. The first time I ever saw a college like that was when I got off the bus from the airport. No college visits, no parents dropping me off, just a first-time airplane flight and shipping anything I couldn’t carry in a suitcase to my dorm in UPS boxes. Almost all the other kids in my dorm were from New England or New York. They made fun of the way I talked — in the Midwest, we call the fizzy stuff you drink “pop” which just cracked up all my friends. So, I learned to say “soda,” instead. But the thing I really noticed was that they just knew so much more than I did — not about the things we learned in classes — but about how to navigate the world, both our little college microcosm, but also the wider world. They knew how to ask professors for help, how to travel, how to order in restaurants (sometimes when their parents came to visit, they would invite me out to eat), etc. I was embarrassed by my ignorance, and too proud to ask for help, so I tried to learn by watching and imitating them. Sometimes that didn’t work so well (chopsticks). But I muddled my way through and graduated from college, and even managed to go to graduate school (twice!). Looking back, I realize two things: 1. I should have asked for help more often. It was just my stupid pride and not wanting to look like I didn’t know something that prevented me from asking. But if I had, a lot of things would have been a lot easier!  And 2. A lot of people helped me along the way, despite my hard-headedness. I was not nearly as grateful at the time as I should have been, and now, I wish I could go back and thank them all.