Working-class students more often lack the advice, guidance and support needed to navigate the tricky application process, whereas their wealthy peers at top public schools have admissions tutors to help their students game the system.
The people who founded America, who fought for its freedom, did not look to anyone else to get them out of their troubles. They took matters into their own hands and answered only to God and their peers. In today's world, sacrifice and hardship are not in the everyday language, and instant gratification is foremost.
I think professionally I admire people and the way they've handled their careers and being in the media. But the people that I used to inspire me and keep me going were my peers in Toronto - I would see the same girls going to audition after audition, and their resilience to do it again, and I found that inspiring.
I look around at my peers, and I'm so blown away by their talent and their beauty and their cool style, as well as their ability to be an actress and be a movie star and be good at it. I mean, they're so good, and we're all trying to get the same parts.
But there was a lot of pressure to achieve and to get things right, whether in school, on stage or with my peers and family.
As long as I have the respect of my peers - the people I play against and my teammates - that's all I need.
I play with a lot of great peers around the NFL - to even be mentioned with those guys is something special.
I was a highly sensitive kid, sort of an old soul, and I felt like a lot of people in my peer group didn't fully understand me, or I couldn't fully be myself. I just wasn't engaged in a way that was fulfilling me.
My one thing is respect. I don't care about anything else. You should respect everyone around you - the people who work for you, peers. Be classy.
What's cool about the beatboxing is I was so afraid to sing in front of my peers, my parents, anybody. I just wouldn't do it. So in sixth grade, I would turn to beatboxing because it made me feel better. Like, I can beatbox 'Drop It Like It's Hot.' Doing that a bunch of times eventually gave me the confidence to sing in front of people.
