I have members of my family who are in the military. I have friends who are in the military. Classmates who served in the military.
When I was in the second grade, I learned that I looked different from my classmates.
There was a time in my life when people called me 'Denim Dan.' I didn't like it. And fortunately for my self-esteem, it didn't stick for very long. I was 12, and I was given the name by my classmates after I showed up to the first day of school in - wait for it - triple denim.
The history of the British empire, the chapter of our national story that would have explained to my classmates why a child born in Nigeria was sat among them, was similarly missing from the curriculum.
When you're 10, 11, 12, and you're watching your idols, you feel like you know them. I found more in common with these people when they talked in interviews than I did with my classmates.
I have this recurring nightmare where I'm giving a speech in front of my old high school classmates, and they start laughing at me, and I look down and realize I'm naked. And a shark.
I attended Amherst College from 1951 to 1955. The first two years were a revelation. There were innumerable exchanges with brilliant classmates, among them the playwright Ralph Allen, the classics scholar Robert Fagles, and the composer Michael Sahl.
My classmates would copulate with anything that moved, but I never saw any reason to limit myself.
People often ask me why I continue to speak out if it’s hurting my family. But that’s exactly why I speak out. The people Erdogan is targeting are my family, my friends, my neighbors, my classmates. I need to speak out, or my country will suffer in silence.
I was somewhat out of place among my classmates; I could not be as bohemian as they were.
