Joseph Mason has lived a difficult life. Only he knows just how difficult it has been. When he was four years old, his shoes and socks never felt quite right. When he was five, he could only walk into his kindergarten by one special door. When he was six, he had to erase everything he wrote, even though his letters and numbers were as neat as if they had been typed. When he was seven, he could not write at all. When he was twelve, he was not supposed to know numbers. When he was sixteen, he made himself walk the streets picking up trash to keep the streets clean. When he was seventeen, he...

What fun Leesy had. She learned how to roll downhill with her cousins. She learned how to hide behind the bookcase. She received a little girl's watch one quiet Christmas Eve. She learned about adjoining hotel rooms. She forgot how to walk. Then she turned seven. She learned how to wear a big orange dress so she could be the Queen of Halloween. She saw sunsets in the fall and Elvis Presley at a county fair. She learned that people love both winners and losers. She learned what made her afraid, and she learned what was beautiful in this world. When she grew up she learned to be a mother...

The author took to heart the recommendation by a kind teacher, who years before had said to her and her fellow students, "Write down your thoughts and dreams. Write your hopes, your fears, your success, your failure. Write words, write paragraphs. Write poems. As the years go by, and you look back, reading what you have written, you will see that they are not only words, they are you, the you that used to be, the you that still is. Write it now, and look back at yourself in years to come. You might miss the you that once was. If you write, you will find the you that once was is still there in...