An excerpt from Never Settled: a memoir of a boy on the road to manhood (Ch. 2)

It was amazing that I could do anything positive at school. We never settled in one town very long. We moved many times a year, almost every year. Due to the number of times we moved, my education was constantly disrupted. I also had a propensity to have behavioral issues from time to time at school. I excelled academically everywhere we went and most often surpassed those that had been at that school all along. I enjoyed the positive reinforcement I received at school from my teachers. Positive reinforcement was severely lacking at home and it was nice to receive it somewhere. It motivated me to do well in the classroom. I never settled for just passing my classes, but pursued excellence knowing that I would receive that positive feedback at school. I was a fairly smart kid and took pride in most of my studies.

“Hey, can I go to the library to work on a project for English?” I asked. 

“Since you finished typing the first section, sure. What do you have going on?” she asked. 

“I am working on my Senior English paper. I’m almost finished, but need a few more resources. I am writing about ‘Bart Power,’”I explained.

“Bart Power? What’s that?”