The simple answer is that there is never a way to turn back the clock. There is only the constant beat of forward movement. After a few years, this is what I came to know and understand. The biggest lesson life would eventually teach me is that there really are no negatives—that every experience is simply an opportunity, and what we do with it determines if it helps or hurts us.

If someone had told me in the midst of my adolescent struggles that I'd choose to be burned as a child in order to learn valuable leessons, I would have laughed in his face (or better yet, punched him in the nose). And yet today, I'm convinced that the life I have is the life I chose for myself. But we all have to travel our own winding paths to make such discoveries . . .

While I may not have become known as a young radical or my school's resident philosopher, I did earn a reputation as a talented drummer and solid musician; and that reputation opened new doors for me socially, academically, and professionally . . . — Dan Caro