When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to be an exchange student to a small town in Argentina called Goya.

It started 25 years ago, when I was teaching elementary school in a small town in Missouri.

My maternal grandmother was a star on her high school basketball team in small-town Mississippi.

My maternal grandmother was a star on her high school basketball team in small-town Mississippi.

There was a small window when I wanted to be an astronaut. It may have coincided with not getting cast in a high school play.

Any institution becomes a community - whether it's a high school or a boarding school or a publishing company or a small town where everybody knows certain things about people.