I got in trouble with the police, and that was a rude awakening. That was it. I'd seen the bottom of the pit, and it was time to scrape myself out of it.

Finally, it's not the lies we tell others that do the most damage, it's those we tell ourselves. From this all troubles rise.

It's definitely a rude awakening. We're going to have to get better. We're going to have to get better every step of the way.

It's definitely a rude awakening.

So many of our gyms are dark after school. The police say the worst time when kids find trouble is that 4 to 6 p.m. time when the schools close and there's no money to run after-school programs.

I was woken by a shell-burst in the trench of sleep. Heart skipping, with eyes fighting light, my thoughts sprang up like a field of starlings startled by a farmer's gunshot, a thousand separate, autonomous specks that swirled into a single united black shape.