Today people look at me, at my job and my Ivy League credentials, and assume that I’m some sort of genius, that only a truly extraordinary person cou… - JD Vance

With all due respect to those people, I think that theory is a load of bullshit. Whatever talents I have, I almost squandered until a handful of loving people rescued me.

You can’t just cast aside family members because they seem uninterested in you. You’ve got to make the effort, because they’re family.

I don’t believe in epiphanies. I don’t believe in transformative moments, as transformation is harder than a moment. I’ve seen far too many people awash in a genuine desire to change only to lose their mettle when they realized just how difficult change actually is.

But experience can be a difficult teacher, and it taught me that this story of economic insecurity is, at best, incomplete.