Educated

"Somehow I had to find a way to be myself."

"I was not the person my father had tried to make me."

"Knowledge had changed the way I understood the world."

"I had started a new life, and it couldn't have been more different from my old one."

"The skill I was learning was a very specific one: how to exist in a different world and return to the old one."

"I began to understand that Shawn's abuse had a function."

"Everything I had worked for, I owed to music."

"I had never been to school. I had never been to a doctor."

"Dad's letters had convinced me that I was not safe in the world."

"I was not prepared for college, in any sense of the word."

"I was educated by my struggle, not despite it."

"The person I am now would never recognize the person I was."

"My greatest act of courage was walking away from everything I had ever known."

"I learned that the mind is capable of believing almost anything if given no alternative."

"I chose to be educated, and in doing so, I chose freedom."

"My education was not just academic—it was a complete rewiring of my mind."

"The greatest power I ever had was the power to question."

"I was raised to believe that the world was my enemy."

"In seeking knowledge, I lost my family, but I found myself."

"I had to unlearn almost everything I had been taught."

"My father's certainty was more dangerous than his ignorance."

"The past has a way of catching up with you, no matter how far you run."

"I had to become my own parent in order to survive my childhood."

"I learned that love is not always enough to keep a family together."

"I was born into a war, though I didn't understand it until much later."

"My education was my escape route, though I didn't know it at first."

"I had to learn how to learn, which was harder than learning itself."

"The most dangerous thing my parents taught me was to trust no one but them."

"I chose education over blood, and it saved my life."

"The person I became was unrecognizable to the girl I had been."