I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of.

I like the curve of a ballerina’s foot. I like when boys are passionate about something and care about their mothers. I like poems about coffee and fucking and love. I like when I’m on the highway and I make eye contact with the person speeding next to me. I like when I’m in the city and I see someone taking pictures of skyscrapers; with their necks arched back and their eyes lost in the view and their mind on something wondrous. I like drinking wine with friends and vodka with strangers. I like when my heart feels full even if my wallet is empty. I like when people hold my hand or lift me up. I like when someone offers me something- anything…Their advice, to pay, their love, a hit. It’s a good feeling to be excited for the future and proud of your past. To speak to someone new and genuinely impress them. To leave something better than it was before. To be charming just by being yourself.

I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown, eat interesting food, dig some interesting people, have an adventure, be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about, I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking twelve miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people — Americans and Europeans — come back and go, “Ohhhh.” And the lightbulb goes on.