While I was growing up, I lived a very sheltered life. I had lived in four different agencies that cared for children by the time I was eighteen. My social skills were limited and I had never traveled anywhere until I entered college.

In college, I was fortunate in finding  work while I attended school. I learned how to spend money on root beer floats and hamburgers. I didn’t have a car and most students who lived in the dorms  stayed on campus for lack of transportation. We became a close-knit community out in the middle of no where, far from the rest of civilization.

As a freshman, our stately institution created an initiation for the first year students. It was called “Fish Week.” I had to wear a dorky looking cardboard hat on my head that stayed in place with an elastic string that rested under the chin. Trust me, it…