Book excerpt: Growing up is a series of emotional roller coasters. As we go through the motions of life, we learn to cope, understand, reason, and push forward. As we form who we are, we take in all the virtue and ethical experience that we can not only reason with but also relate to. Whether or not we choose to invoke these life changes, all challenges are entirely our choice and responsibility. This book is filled with poetry that the author wrote in various stages of her life as she twisted through adolescence. In a story that leads to words of sweet serenity, hope, and inspiration, let the author take you into an array of life experiences that may guide you into your own self-reckoning.