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Students Discuss Drugs on Campus
Marianne Lechuga | Staff Reporter

Drug addiction has been described as “our biggest open secret.” How big of a secret is it on campus?
Freshman Jimmie Garcia said it’s talked about a lot on campus, though generally not in classes, but in more social settings. He hears it talked about more in the recreation center or anywhere in the student center.
“Basically planning times to get together to smoke weed or asking if there’s anyone they can sell to or buy from,” Garcia said.
Garcia believes drugs are easy to access because of the number of people who sell them.
“For example, there’s a guy at work who sells drugs and tries to get me to buy some. He gave me his number to give to people in order to help him get business,” Garcia said.
       Garcia said the dealer said he could get his hands on anything. Freshman respiratory care major Tavia Stewart believes it’s easy to get drugs because that is how many people make their money. The reasons for doing drugs while in college is simple for her to understand even if she doesn’t personally agree with it.
“This is college and there’s stress and pressure and a lot of people feel like that’s the only way to relax,” Stewart said.
Stewart said she has seen drug problems at fraternity parties more than on campus.
“Not saying that frat parties produce the drugs, but some people come to the parties already high,” Stewart said.
Freshman theater major Kelly Foard believes that prescription drug addiction seems to be the bigger problem she has witnessed on campus.
“Everyone’s on a prescription even though they don’t seem to know what it’s for,” Foard said.  “Even the campus doctor is very quick to prescribe things just for a quick fix.”
Foard said her eye was bothering her due to stress and sleep deprivation and was prescribed $80 of Allegra even though she said she does not have allergies.
“I ripped up the prescription and threw it in his trash can in his presence,” Foard said.
Foard believes it’s extremely easy to get drugs due to the availability of it in Wichita Falls.
“You can mention to your friends, ‘hey I want to get high’ and they’ll say, ‘OK my friend has a friend that can hook you up,” Foard said.
Its affordability is another issue that makes drugs easy to obtain.
“It’s not incredibly expensive, but affordable enough that seventh graders can get a hold of it,” Foard said.
Stewart thinks most people who are addicted to drugs take them to fill a void in their lives.
“In my opinion they are missing something that they feel the need to do drugs in order to feel better about themselves,” Stewart said.
Some students may take drugs because of peer pressure, Stewart said.
“They may do it because they think it’s the cool thing to do, but once they realize it’s wrong, it’s too late and they’re already addicted,” Stewart said.
Freshman criminal justice major Brittany Parker knows the hardships of trying to help a best friend addicted to drugs.
“No matter how hard you try to give people on drugs advice, they won’t listen to you,” Parker said.
It becomes so difficult at times that Parker wanted to give up.
“Sometimes it’s almost easier to let them do what they’re doing because they get angry and agitated really easily because of their denial,” Parker said.
Drug testing in order to play sports or get jobs has been a successful attempt to crack down on drugs. According to drug-test.com, a marijuana-user may screen positive for up to six weeks. The tests can be required for volunteer work as well.
“I had to take a drug test to do volunteer work with Community Action
Agency in Oklahoma City, because the job provided that you work with kids,”
Stewart said.
However, there are Web sites solely dedicated to helping drug users pass their drug tests through methods and products. Web sites also offer a list of companies that do and do not require drug tests. Random drug sampling has also been used to spot users.
“At Joe Muggs Coffee Shop you don’t have to take a drug test. If there is suspicion someone is on drugs then they’ll give one,” Foard said. “We are told that when we’re hired there can be random drug testing.”
Even with the threat of drug testing, people find ways to satisfy their addiction.
“Just because it’s not out in the open doesn’t mean it’s not going on,”
Stewart said.


Editor gives Firsthand Account of Sex and Drug Abuse... continued
Abigail Carter | Managing Editor

Though Justin and I liked each other, he and his live-in didn’t split up for good until more than a year later. By this time, I had moved out of my parents’ house again and was living with my friend Michelle’s family. I had also tried heroin-based X-tacy once. When I took it, several others were trying it as well. I didn’t like it. There are several young people in this area who take “X” because they think it’s fun to “roll” when at concerts and parties. Those kids don’t seem to understand that they like “rolling” so much because they are addicted to heroin.
In the summer of 1998, right before I turned 19, I started dating Justin.  At this time, I also attended my first classes at MSU.
Justin and I moved into a house on Kemp Street together in October. He bought me a new computer and flute for Christmas. In early 1999, I was playing on my new computer when the telephone rang. It was one of Justin’s many clients, telling me that Justin had just been arrested at his cousin’s house for possession of a half–pound of marijuana. The caller told me the police were on their way to our house.
Less than a half-hour later, police had surrounded our home. They were pounding on the front door, shouting, and shining flashlights through the windows. Just hours prior, there had possibly been large quantities of marijuana in the house. I had no idea what was there. I was scared. I didn’t answer the door. So they knocked it down with a battering ram.
They interrogated me and trashed the house, wiping mud from their boots all over the furniture and beds and breaking several items. They knew I was a student and threatened me with arrest, saying that if I just cooperated with them, I could attend my classes the next day. I offered them no new information and they arrested me. I spent the night in jail, as did Justin, and we were bonded out the next day.
Following the drug bust, Justin and I spent the $10,000 he had stashed on legal fees and court costs. We moved to another house. Six months later, we moved again.
After two years of this constant moving, suspicion and paranoia coupled with Justin’s constant and unmerited accusations of cheating, I did cheat on him.  It took him about a month to figure out I really was, and I admitted everything to him, saying that I didn’t love him if I wanted to be with another person. I broke up with him. He begged me to stay in the house for a couple more weeks. I stayed one week.
During that time, he began to consume even greater quantities of alcohol and pills than usual, dealt in larger amounts and more dangerous drugs, and became increasingly aggressive and unstable. The last straw was the night he arrived to pick me up for work after having, unbeknownst to me, downed an entire bottle of Jack Daniels and who knows how many pills and beer. As soon as I got into the car and he pealed out of the parking lot at 50+ mph, I said, “You are going to get us into a wreck.”  I said it two more times before we got up onto the expressway and did get into a wreck, bouncing off of the side of an 18-wheeler and another car before crashing through sand barrels and skidding to a stop on the side of the freeway.
He was arrested. I left the house soon after and moved into a dingy little downtown apartment with my friend, Michelle.
A few months after we had moved in, I was awakened by a late-night phone call from Justin.  He sounded upset, but I was angry because he had disturbed my sleep, so I threw the phone to the floor and went back to sleep.
 He telephoned me several times the next day, often cutting our conversations short because he had to “do something” or “talk to some people.”  He talked about how cops kept driving by his house.  He said he had done “something bad” and the cops were out to get him.
The following afternoon, he, his brother and three other men were arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping and attempted murder. Justin called me and asked me to pick up his Bronco from in front of his brother’s house. When I arrived, there were investigators with a crime scene unit searching his brother’s house. They yelled at me not to touch the vehicle, which they were about to search and impound, so I left. A few days later, Justin and his cohorts’ charges were upgraded to capital murder, when the boy whom they had kidnapped and beaten died in the hospital.
Because I knew he had no one else dependable, I moved back into Justin’s house to maintain it for him. I visited him twice a week in jail, wrote him daily and accepted something like $2,500 in collect-from-jail phone calls.
During this time I turned 21 and, being a cook in a bar, became an alcoholic. In that ten-month period in which I lived (with the occasional roommate) in Justin’s house, three more men raped me.
The first of the three was a man who I thought was a friend. I let him trustingly into my home. The second was an acquaintance from work who talked my friend, Jason, into leaving me when I fell asleep drunk in his apartment, and then raped me. The third, and last, time, it was a cold, pre-meditated attack in my own bed.
My friends and I had gone to a bar. The co-owner of the place would not leave us alone. We talked to him at the beginning of the night, and my friend at the time, Crystal, invited him to hang out with us at my house later. She told him the neighborhood I lived in, but not the exact address.
By the time we left the bar a couple of hours later, we had forgotten all about this guy. We drove to a friend’s house to pick up some weed, and then my friends dropped me off at home. I went inside, locked the door, went to my room, stripped naked, and passed out like I usually did after a night out, when I was finally alone in the sanctuary of my home.
My roommate, Rachel, and her boy-toy of the night were in her bedroom in the front of the house, and I was in my bedroom in the back. Twenty or thirty minutes after I came in, according to Rachel, there was a knock at the front door.  She opened it to a man who she said asked for me by name. Preoccupied with her own agenda, she told him I was back in my room and let him into our house.  She returned to her boy-toy and her room, and the bar’s co-owner found his way back to my room where he raped me all night.
At one point, Rachel said she walked in to see me laying naked on my stomach on top of the bed with my eyes closed and that less-than-a-man kneeling, nude, behind me. She said she asked me if I was okay and I muttered, “hmmm....” which she thought meant that I knew what was happening. Or so she said. I don’t think she even cared enough to check.
I opened my eyes in the morning to see a creepy but vaguely familiar man walking out of my bedroom. I said “Hey!” and he looked down at me, said “Thanks,” and left quickly.  Hungover and dazed, I went to the bathroom, realized I was naked, saw blood, felt pain, and knew what had happened.
 Some people say that women deserve to be raped if they put themselves in that situation. NO ONE deserves to have their body violated. Your body is your soul’s carrier, and your soul cannot help but be affected by what happens to its host. The residual effects of such abuse do not fade, but remain with you forever. And the most vivid memories never dim.
After that, the self-mutilation, the cutting, that I had done since I was 15, escalated greatly. On two separate occasions, I sliced my arm so wide open with a razor blade that I passed out from loss of blood. Had my friends not been there both times I might have died. Just as I did when I was with Justin, I ate pills by the handful, Xanax, codeine, Valium, whatever I could get my hands on.
As a result of abusing Xanax, I developed petit-mal seizures when I was 19, which I still have today. They are triggered by pain. I have given myself minor asthma from years of smoking, though, after two years of trying, I finally quit this past spring. Luckily, all of my testing at the health clinic came back negative and I didn’t get any gifts that kept on giving from any of my attackers. I have an arrest record that is longer than I am tall and a felony conviction that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
I am now 25. I have been away from that scene since May 2001, when I moved in with the man who is now my husband. May 2005 will be our third-year anniversary.
After completing a year’s probation with the Wichita County Sheriff’s Department, paying more than $1,200 in fines and performing 80 hours of community service, I appealed my probation from MSU. Following months of paperwork, I got myself re-admitted to MSU on scholastic probation in Spring 2004.
Now, I am the managing editor of the Wichitan and a devoted student. Better yet, I am thrilled to be content with my life. I adore my husband and our zoo of 17 pets. I have several scars, physical and psychological, to show from my years of hell. I have always had one hell of an imagination and as a child I had nightmares.  Now I have night terrors from which I wake teary–eyed, sweaty and scared.
After spending two years in county jail, Justin was convicted of capital murder and is currently serving a 35-year sentence. I have heard through the grapevine he has been on his best behavior in prison and may be able to get out in six years. I wonder whether he will try to see me when he gets out, and I pray that he doesn’t. He has said to several people, including myself, that if I am happy, he is happy for me.
I have outgrown the partying that many of my MSU classmates still seek. When I hear fellow students discussing their nights out at Graham Central Station or any other club, I want to warn them that it won’t lead to anything good. I agree that it is fun to dance, and fun to drink. But many kids, like the one I was, don’t have the control to know when to stop. And that’s where the fun ends.


Most Campus Drug Abuse involves Alcohol, Pot, Pills
Paige Dickerson | News Editor

The most commonly abused drugs on MSU’s campus are alcohol and marijuana according to Bill Coombs, a licensed chemical dependency counselor, and Chief of Police Michael Hagy.
The MSU Counseling Center contracted with Coombs to counsel students for about a year, and he said he has an ongoing caseload of students dependent on drugs.
“Alcohol is the most common that I see and then marijuana. Often I’ll see people who use both,” Coombs said.
Hagy said that cases of marijuana abuse are sparse on the campus.
“We just don’t have that many occurrences reported to us,” Hagy said.
He also said the set up of the campus makes it unsuitable to methamphetamine labs.
“Because of the set up it is not easy to set up meth labs. We don’t have any large areas to set up labs in,” Hagy said.
One drug commonly associated with college campuses is Rohypnol, often known as the “date rape drug,” but MSU doesn’t have many problems with it, Hagy said.
“The pills are little white pills  that look like small birth control pills and they just drop them in peoples’ drinks and they have the effect of loss of memory and then they take advantage of the opportunity. But here what we get most of the time is mostly pipes, bongs and other drug paraphernalia,” Hagy said.
Abuse of prescription drugs on campus are reported sometimes, but mainly as suicide threats, Hagy said.
“Sometimes they’ll call us and say they just took a bottle of pills to try and commit suicide so we take them to the hospital to get their stomachs pumped,” Hagy said. “It is hard to prove abuse of prescriptions.”
Coombs said he hasn’t seen many cases of meth  from MSU, but it around Wichita Falls it is a little more common.
“Students who use meth are not going to stay in school. It is not a weekend drug,” Coombs said. “If any student think they can play around with meth, they’re wrong. It is a horrible drug. It will take away all your goals and all your dreams.”
Coombs said students who get involved with drugs often are experiencing their first year away from parents and other authorities.
“Especially at MSU where so many students come and it is there first time away from home, away from their parents, and other positive authority figures, I think they go a little crazy. Sometimes they overdo it,” Coombs said.
Several years ago MSU police took drug dogs and searched the dorms  for drugs after hearing there was a problem on campus.
“The search revealed no drugs. That is good news though. We haven’t really heard it is a problem since then. Maybe it is because they know we’ll get the dogs,” Hagy said.
Coombs and the MSU Counseling Center are working on setting up a 12 step program on campus.  The program will begin after the first of the year.  Any student interested in joining an on-campus program should contact the counseling center.
“Confidentiality is no problem. They just need to leave a name and contact number and the counseling center will get the information to them,” Coombs said.


Diving Enthusiast Breaks Barrier between Worlds
Cassie Daley | Staff Reporter

The ocean bubbled like a freshly poured Sprite when he broke the barrier between one world and another. It doesn’t matter how many times he does it; going from boat to ocean, from the land world to the sea world will always be an exhilarating experience for Lance Partridge.
 “It’s a flying sensation. If you ever wanted to be Superman or any super hero, you can do that down there; it’s a totally different world,” said Partridge a MSU finance major.
Partridge works at Aqua Azul Divers, which opened last January. 
 “I am a scuba diver so I started shopping here and Patrick (the store’s owner) asked me to work here,” he said. 
Working at the shop has been beneficial to Partridge. It gave him the opportunity to be involved in a diving community. He’s already gone on two trips to Mexico, several trips to local lakes, and is preparing to leave for a dive in Los Angeles where he will be diving with great white sharks.
 “It’s a cage dive, so it’s kinda protected. They’ve broken in there before, but it’s no big deal,” he said about the sharks.
During his downtime in the vivid blue oceanic store, he’s got plenty to think about - from where he wants to go to grad school to possibly becoming a certified scuba instructor. Partridge speaks more excitedly about going to work everyday than most people do about going on vacation. He said, if not for his job, he may not have gotten to experience everything that he has in the past year.
 “I think the whole thing is a life-altering experience,” said Partridge about diving. “You get to see things that most people can’t even imagine.”
Maybe that is why Patrick Hearn, a cabinetmaker by trade, who graduated from MSU in 1999 with a degree in finance, is now the proud owner of Aqua Azul Divers.
 “I think it’s an opportunity to get out and do things locally, and to get involved with the community,” Hearn said.
Hearn has taken it upon himself to get his organization certified through the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Professional Association for Diving Instructors (PADI). In this way, Aqua Azul Divers could offer different degrees of scuba diving certification as physical education credit at MSU.
 “You can do scuba diving and walk away with something you’ll have for an entire lifetime. You’ll become a certified scuba diver,” Hearn said.
Not only does Aqua Azul Divers offer certification in scuba diving for college credit, but they also offer plenty of traveling opportunities. In September, Hearn organized a four-day trip to Cozumel. They made eight dives, with lodging, boating and food included for only $600. He is currently trying to plan a trip over spring break in hopes of attracting more students.
 “A lot of other universities have a strong dive community,” Hearn said, “I thought it was something that could benefit these students.”
Hearn said it was his daughter, currently attending the University of California, who instigated his diving obsession. She also inspired him to seek to involve the MSU campus.
“Approaching it as a parent, I want my daughter’s college experience to be fun,” Hearn said, “not too much fun, but I want it to be fun. Divers are always people that want to have a good time and enjoy life.”
Hearn said that all he had to do was present the ideas, and sponsor them, and Partridge and Matt Tirpak took off with them and made them a reality. Partridge and Tirpak both have been the driving force in getting scuba class accepted for college credit, and setting up a dive club on campus.
 “It is a pretty good deal,” said Matt Tirpak an MSU intensive English language instructor, “You get a license you can use anywhere in the world for the rest of your life, and you get a transfer credit for PE. Plus it’s fun.”
Tirpak, who has been diving since a 1997 vacation in Australia, is preparing to get his diving instructor certification.
Tirpak received his first certification in Japan, and has dived everywhere from Vanuatu to Indonesia. He is currently in the process of combining his career and his favorite pastime.
“After traveling a lot of places and seeing the work I was doing in the classroom, I saw a lot of opportunities,” he said.
Tirpak is trying to set up a course on campus called “English for divers” which, will focus on grammar and vocabulary, introductory field research and a diving certification for international students. He said it is important to help others have the opportunity to experience life underwater.
It is obvious that he is excited about sharing these experiences with his students. He repeatedly referenced the underwater photography taken by Hearn that dresses the store walls. He said the sights, the feeling and the experience is irreplaceable.
 “There are sea fans the size of a Volkswagen, and sea slugs the size of a loaf of bread. It’s all cute in the pet stores but you get in the sea and it’s incredible; it’s huge,” Tirpak said excitedly. “You’re just in there and there’s things happening all around you.”



Talib Kweli's second solo Album a Definite hit-Maker
Abigail Carter | Managing Editor

“Going Hard” begins with easy–sounding horns and crash cymbals, melting seamlessly into an edgy, poetic–rap flow accompanied by an aggressive, heavy drum beat. 
A taste of electric guitar flavors the haunting keyboard harmonics–reminiscent of “The Twilight Zone” theme–while Kweli’s voice is the main focus. The song fades with the delicate melodies of a sad, pretty pianåo.

Talib Kweli’s second solo album, “A Beautiful Struggle” a 2004 release from Rawkus Entertainment, incorporates the talents of several artists in its production–Good Charlotte, Mos Def, The Roots, Mary J. Blige, Kanye West, Faith Evans, Busta Rhymes, Musiq and Just Blaze are just a few.
 
The second track, “Back up offa me,” has solid, funky beats. The male and female background vocals really fill out the chorus, while the clap–along, snappy drums and horns lend it a fun, dance-y, rocking atmosphere that calls to mind Dre’s old–school lyrical rap stylings.

“Broken Glass,” by far one of my favorites on this album, starts out with a shout of “Kweli!”
The tinny sounds of metal bells and a keyboard–heavy beat provide the perfect backdrop for Talib’s smooth, rocking rap.
His rolling beats inspire listeners to move their feet and bodies to the music, as he sings of a girl whose lost her head to her dreams. The shouted challenge of a proud woman in the background leads into a short swing-horn solo and from there breaks into a brassy, ballsy rap.
The following track, “We know,” featuring Faith Evans, could hardly be any more different from the one before. Kweli provides a variety and range that is not exhibited by most of the artists who attain radio airplay.
His rap of love and life is carried along by slow bass and interlaced with cooing female backup vocals. This track is softer than the others. Sassy, sexy sisters singing backup provide a harmonious blend with the faint echoes of male voices.
The fifth track features the sounds of a space-y xylophone with heavy–hitting rock beats. This group–rap of black rock–and–roll showcases rock flute, hard drums, and heavy bass.
“I try,” featuring Mary J. Blige, is another hit on the softer side of the album. It begins with two solo piano notes then the drum machine breaks in, interspersed with the soulful Blige, and topped with Talib’s scrappy, in–your–face style.
In a psuedo-tribute to 80s hits, “Around My Way” is a nostalgic nod to the better things in life and of the past. The song includes pieces of “Every LittleThing She Does is Magic,” by The Police.
It’s almost spiritual soundis a testament to Kweli’s talent. Like his collaborator, Kanye West, Talib proved that one can be both a successful producer and artist.
A complete contrast, No. 9 on the album at first calls to mind “Testarossa” by Sir Mix–A–Lot, or perhaps dance–hall music like “Tootsie Roll.”
It’s almost techno feel is accomplished with  fast-paced electric music and sing–song rap. 
Track ten begins with children counting and light, pretty music one might associate with children’s TV programming.
It morphs easily into a slow, story-telling rap, accompanied by hands clapping. The voices of women and children are interwoven with the melodies.
Talib Kweli, though not granted local radio play, definitely merits a listen. Hemay just blow you away.


Local Phychic teaches Students to Embrace their Spiritual Gifts
Ashley Dennis | For the Wichitan

When she was little, she saw dead people. But unlike Haley Joel Osmond, the famed child star who made millions from his starring role in “Sixth Sense,” Karen J. Fletcher didn’t receive any awards or Hollywood movie deals for her talent. In fact, the hidden talent she possesses is one that some people believe should remain just that–hidden.
Fletcher is a self-proclaimed psychic, though she would much rather prefer the title of “spiritual adviser.” She has been working professionally with her abilities from her home-based business for more than 30 years as a psychic, “crossing–over medium,” palm and card reader, healer, lecturer, and counselor.
“I cannot remember a time without it,” Fletcher said, recalling her ability to speak to spirits, animals, and plants throughout her childhood. “I always had a respect for everything because everything has life.”
Born in Carnegie, Okla., and raised by her Native American grandmothers in the 1940s and 50s, Fletcher believes most of her spirituality comes from the traditional Indian teachings passed down through the generations.
“I was raised as Kiowa, but I’m actually Choctaw and Cherokee. So all of the teachings that I have learned are from the Kiowa,” she said.
As a teen, Fletcher realized she was very different from the other girls her age.
“I was able to see spirits, but I didn’t know that’s what they were. I just thought they were people. I didn’t know there was no one there,” Fletcher said.
By the time she turned 17, Fletcher felt as though her unique gift had ostracized from peers and loved ones.
“I began to feel extremely isolated,” she said. “My family tried to commit me to three different kinds of psychiatric hospitals, but I wasn’t a threat to anyone. After that, I learned to mirror everyone else, but I was unhappy because I could not be myself. That’s why I have a deep empathy for people who are lonely.”
To camouflage her secret world of extra–sensory perception, Fletcher immersed herself in what she considered to be “normal” activities. She married, had children, pursued a career as a social worker and was a devoted member of the Church of Christ.
Yet her innate connection with the spirit world continued to play a major role in her everyday life. It wasn’t until an encounter with a woman whom Fletcher calls her “mentor” that she realized her gift served a greater purpose than any she had imagined.
“My sister had been going to a psychic for years. She had been telling me that this person had asked to see me. I was hesitant at first because it went against everything I believed in at the time,” Fletcher said.
After much resistance, she finally gave in and made the journey to Oklahoma City to meet the mysterious woman whom she calls “Billie.”
“When we finally did meet, it’s like my life took a 180–degree turn. I no longer had to pretend because I knew who I was. There was just a knowing,” Fletcher said.
From Billie, Fletcher learned how to harness her special energy, focus on her abilities, read, heal, and control the thinning of the “veil” that reached into the spirit world.
Since then, Fletcher has worked to share her life’s teachings with others, using her psychic abilities to helping those in need. Her “sight” and healing powers, she believes, have helped rescue a desperate woman from an abusive marriage, nearly cured another woman of a terminal illness and brought messages of peace from loved ones who have passed on.
“Most of my clients are very comforted from the messages that are brought to them. I make every one of my clients cry. And I can’t help but get emotional, either. If they cry, I cry. If they laugh, I laugh,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher’s clients and students come from all walks of life. One is a 16–year–old female.
“She’s been coming to the classes that I teach in my home since she was 12 years old,” Fletcher said.
Most of the people she encounters share similar concerns.
“Ninety–five percent of clients want to know about their true love. But there are usually five things they all want to know about: soulmates, health, career, money, and family,” Fletcher said. “And most of the time, I’m telling them things that they already know. It’s just a feeling of security and confidence.”
Fletcher offers 30 minute long, taped sessions for $26. She believes taping the sessions ensures authenticity. She also believes that tapes help clients remember what the spirits have told them.
“You can’t always remember the conversations. Most people only hear what is relevant today, in the present. I encourage all of my clients to listen to their tapes on a regular basis because sometimes the spirits add things to the tapes for wisdom,” Fletcher said.
She believes that each person possesses a gift, yet many people do not realize how gifted they are.  “All of us have a place in life. We’re all the same in God’s eye. But it takes a lot of courage to be yourself. I admire anyone who steps out of the norm.”