The time for me in the Peace Corps was easily the most formative experience I've had in my life.
I think if I have learned one thing from all of my family members, both sides of it - my mom's side, my dad's side and everyone else - it's that every one of us has a responsibility to do what we can to contribute back and make our communities and our country a better place.
I have been extraordinarily fortunate in my life, luckier than almost anybody on this planet. And whenever I ran into challenges, my parents did everything they could so that I could maximize my own potential.
People think my family pushed me into running for office. The person who pushed me most not to run for office was my father.
There are ways that we, as a society, the laws that we write and the contracts we build, can try to actually increase people's ability to reap the reward from their own potential. But we put barriers in front of them.
'Compromise' isn't supposed to be a dirty word. It is, in fact, how representative democracy works.
