Introduction

In all the time since that excellent June afternoon when I screeched out of my high school's parking lot after graduation, I never expected or hoped to see the place again.

As you probably know, few bullets have more momentum than a departing senior. Yet here I was, ricocheting back twenty-five years later, and did it feel weird. First of all, the place looked exactly the same: the low, sprawling redbrick building with its neat shrubs and swept sidewalks, the silver lettering on the wall beside the entrance. As I stepped uncertainly through the steel-and-glass doors, a smiling woman nabbed me.

"Marion," she said. "I'm Sue Henderson." Sue had graduated from Ocean Township two classes ahead of me and was now the school guidance counselor; she was responsible for my reappearance at our alma mater. She thought that as a former recipient of the Spartan Scholar award who had gone on to become an author and minor celebrity (I can hardly express how minor), I might have some advice for the honorees — things I wished I had known back when I was in their place.

Me, a role model? I seemed to recall that even back while earning academic ... read full excerpt from Rules for the Unruly: Living an Unconventional Life ebook