My family and I moved at least six times before I graduated high school. I was fortunate to have a large family network that combined their resources to help me accomplish my goals - but not everyone may be as lucky.
My parents did a great job raising me and my two sisters. We all graduated from high school and we all graduated from college. So, to be a good representative of my family is probably my greatest accomplishment thus far.
When I came out when I was 18, and I graduated from high school, and I felt like that was the time to officially say it, I surprised zero people in my family.
I was a poor kid. I grew up watching film and television but primarily television. And I graduated high school, and I knew I wanted to go to college because nobody in my family had. So I was like, 'I'll go and be a theater major.'
I come from a family of seven, so growing up I always thought I'd like a big family.
Our family story here is one that we're proud of, and that is that, as the ninth of 10 kids in our family, I was the first who, right out of high school, was able to go to four-year college... it was a big moment in our family's life.
My mother graduated from high school at 15 and went to work to support the family because the eldest son went to college.
There have been a lot of times in my life where I came out to a perfect stranger by some chance encounter. It's way easier than coming out to your family. I started high school 'out,' then I had to tell my family. I had to introduce myself to the family.
I'm an only child, so I don't come from a big family. But it has been my observation from friends who do come from big families that usually, when you have a family fight, on the back end you come out better and stronger for it.
I've always had different diet kicks. I grew up in a big Italian family, kind of grew up a chubby kid, then went vegan in fifth grade. I did that for three years, then I went raw in high school. It's always been extreme, but in the last few years I've gotten into balance. I don't restrict myself like I used to.
I graduated early from high school, but up until I graduated, I was playing high school hockey. I really enjoy hockey. That's definitely what I do on my days off, for sure.
I thought, oh, I'm going to be a painter. And eventually my family had moved near Chicago, and when I graduated from high school, I went to the Chicago Art Institute, and it was there that I thought, well, now I'm going to be a painter.
I was brought up to believe that it's family first. Of all the people my parents knew, the family was most important. You always turn to your family, and the family supports you. We do what we can to support our young and go and see the grandchildren if they're doing plays at school and their sports events.
I am excited to run in the community where my wife and I work, where my daughters graduated and my son attends high school, where my family goes to synagogue, and where I have spent so much time working for and with the people of South Florida.
If it wasn't for her literally doing my homework for me, I would not have even graduated high school. Guaranteed . . . My mom always said, 'Luck is nothing but preparation and opportunity.' I think because I've had that history of not really being great in school, I probably try to overcompensate. That's why I try to read so many books. Just so I don't feel . . . uneducated.
Education in our family was not merely emphasized, it was our raison d'etre ... In this family of accomplished scholars, I was to become the academic black sheep. I performed adequately at high school, but in comparison to my older brother, who set the record for the highest cumulative average for our high school, my performance was decidedly mediocre.