Jon: Everybody had a similar story, but their own unique story. Writing it, it helped me cope. I was not reaching out to other people and talking about it. I wasn’t letting people know about it. Then when I wrote this and I got the response in terms of, “Hey, this is helping me,” then I thought maybe I’ll write a little bit more.
Rev. Lydia Sohn: One thing that comes up a lot when somebody passes away but it was unexpected is, “Wow. That's amazing. What a great death, short and quick.” That’s what everybody wants for themselves. Just take me out, even if it’s unexpected. It’s Alzheimer’s or those crippling, chronic illnesses that are really what people are afraid of most and that we should try to avoid. Yes, now we can move on.
Andrea: New parenthood, not only is the sleep deprivation a reality but in some ways society is telling you to be anxious. We’re awash in parenting advice. The parenting advice can change all the time. When I talk about having my daughter and when she was a new baby, it finally felt like my circumstances caught up with my brain. I always had this anxious brain. Finally, it was socially acceptable. It’s not socially mandated that I be anxious all the time.
Priscilla: What I would say to parents who are concerned that perhaps their child is autistic, I would say there's nothing to fear when someone tells you that they think that your child might be on the spectrum. Any kind of evaluation or diagnosis, what's always helped me is to look at it as a way to understand my child better and get more information about the strategies and the approaches that are going to help my child bloom. It has helped Benjamin too emotionally.
Allison: I appreciated in the middle of the crisis when I was being flooded, people putting in their emails, “Don't respond to this right now, but I wanted you to know I'm thinking about you.” Here's their email. They send you their words of love and support, but they remove the burden of you needing to do anything in return. I appreciated that.
Dylan: I really love what I do. This is my hobby. I've always collected candy on my travels. I go into my stores. There's tons of stress that comes with it. That's with every job. My core passion is the designing and being in the stores. The managing of people is definitely hard. Working out for me is a great outlet, travelling, being in nature, which is something I think is really key. I'm starting to learn more about where I should be.
Charles: I have many, many bad habits. Sometimes people ask me, “How do I get rid of bad habits?” The truth of the matter is your brain does not distinguish between a good habit and a bad habit. It just creates habits. It’s up to us to decide which ones we like and which ones we don't like. By the way, having a glass of wine at night, if you enjoy that, that's totally fine.
Sarika: I became a binge eater too. I’d be so obsessed with sugar. My body was craving so much sugar that I would go through half a box of cereal every night. I’d be doing my homework. I'd eat a bowl of cereal with my fingers, no milk, just dry cereal, super sweet stuff too. It was Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams. I would eat one bowl after another until it was almost all gone. It was a lot of unhealthy habits that grew upon one another and really impacted me mentally and physically.
Dan: To be able to take it and be inspired enough to put it into a song, and then to step out on the stage and play it every night, and meet awesome people every night that reach out and say how much it means to them -- we may not be the biggest band in the world, but I feel like we’re making a difference because of that. Every little bit no matter how big or small, it helps. Obviously, the world needs that right now. I need it.
Andre: I start the book with the end, which was my last match. The end started with me trying to get up off the floor. My eyes open. I hear the kids in the other room. My body, the pain, brings me to my knees. It takes me to the floor. It’s the love and also craving for caffeine that gets me to my feet. It’s hard. It was literally a five-minute process to get up so I don’t do anything too startling to my body with the day’s objective.
