 And I had dropped out of school, decided I wanted to go back. And, you know, from the collection of essays, the first time around was a train wreck. So when I got into my community college class, she said, you know, you first have to tell your story before you can tell anyone else's. And I started writing essays about growing up on the south side of Chicago, being a little girl, revisiting those stories about my father, my mother.