I have been given much and I have earned more. I have gained as much as I have lost (and I don’t mean weight.) And I have never stopped learning.For example, my father was killed in a plane crash before I was born, so I grew up in a single-family household (unheard of in the early 60s.) My mom worked yet still had time to raise me with values, morals and a respect for accomplishment. The takeaway: Take nothing for granted and work for what you want.When I was around six, I found a wallet in a vacant lot near my house. I took it to my mom, who found a phone number for the person who lost it. When she came to pick it up, she asked me for the money that had been in it when she lost it. The takeaway: Do things for the right reasons and not for what you expect to get in return.At 13, I was hit by a car and suffered a fracture high on my leg near the hip. As a result, I spent 12 weeks in the hospital, 12 weeks in a body cast and about four months learning how to walk again. The takeaway: Strength is mental as well as physical and enjoy every shower.As a senior in high school, I was as dark as any 17-year old can be and I found an outlet writing poetry. One of the few people I shared my work with was my English teacher. She liked my writing and actually forced me to enter a poem in a creative writing competition sponsored by Northern Kentucky University (first prize was a four-year, full-tuition scholarship.) I won, and suddenly my college choice was made for me. The takeaway: Believe in yourself, but more important, believe that others believe in you.Finally, in college, my house was destroyed in an illegal fireworks explosion (not mine, a neighbor’s). I spent the next six months living out of suitcases and fighting with the insurance company for a settlement. The takeaway: Accept the kindness of friends and learn to laugh at absurdity.These seemingly random occurrences didn’t make me special, but they did instill in me creativity, compassion and commitment.