And the closer we get to adulthood, the more we stifle the the imagination that journey requires. Why? Because imagining other possibilities for our lives would remind us of the painful gap between who we most truly are and the role we play in so-called real world.

But I soon learned that graduate school was a picnic compared to the world of work. The deeper I moved into that world. The more need I felt to wall off my true self - trying, to put it simply, to appear smarter and tougher than I really was.

Janie is a pretty typical teenager. Angry, insecure, confused. I wish I could tell her all that's going to pass. But I don't want to lie to her.