Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family.

What we've tried to do is have neighbors, colleagues, friends and family talking.

My family talks about it. You know, their friends talk about it and neighbors talk about it ... more humiliating than anything I've ever lived through.

It's just fun to go back and see my friends, neighbors ... I get to see my whole family there, ... My brother plays at Virginia Tech and they don't play this weekend so he's actually coming up to the game. It'll be cool. I like going home, you feel comfortable. You just try to play as good as you can because you know everyone will be watching.

We had our neighbors, friends of neighbors, family members, friends of friends, strangers, people we didn't even know were coming out to help.

The evangelical Christian faith I'd grown up with sustained me. It demanded that I refuse the drugs and alcohol on offer in our southwestern Ohio town, that I treat my friends and family kindly, and that I work hard in school. Most of all, when times were toughest, it gave me reason to hope.