He had a kind of quietness and calmness and maturity about him that resonated with others and they respected, ... model myself after Mario.

Maturity begins when we're content to feel we're right about something without feeling the necessity to prove someone else wrong.

I imagined the lies the valedictorian was telling them right now. About the exciting future that lies ahead. I wish she'd tell them the truth: Half of you have gone as far in life as you're ever going to. Look around. It's all downhill from here. The rest of us will go a bit further, a steady job, a trip to Hawaii, or a move to Phoenix, Arizona, but out of fifteen hundred how many will do anything truly worthwhile, write a play, paint a painting that will hang in a gallery, find a cure for herpes? Two of us, maybe three? And how many will find true love? About the same. And enlightenment? Maybe one. The rest of us will make compromises, find excuses, someone or something to blame, and hold that over our hearts like a pendant on a chain.

I did everything but get down on my knees, ... I know I was at boiling point. It wasn't just about Mario. It was about so many young people ? and the laws becoming tougher and more mean-spirited.

Well, God has boxed me in, ... He said that even if I fail, I have no choice.

There is a little bit of shell shock that's going on among donors,