Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was a teenager in 1982, and I was interested in literature and writing. I was also interested in politics and activism, but I was afraid of nuclear war. #2 I had a difficult time understanding how others perceived me, and I was not the master of how my actions and intentions were received. I had a difficult time relating to others, and I felt like I did not understand them. #3 When I arrived at MIT, I was struggling with my calculus class. I had never had to study in high school, and the MIT freshman load of physics, calculus, chemistry, and a humanities class strained my weak study skills. #4 I had grown up reading the stories of the great explorers. I read Endurance and in my mind I traveled along with Shackleton and his team as they survived the icy imprisonment and eventual destruction of their ship, and the necessary and hopefully temporary abandonment of the less able people on Elephant Island with just a freezing ledge of rock for shelter.