Memories can keep you grounded. They don’t have to keep you stuck.

My adviser had once told me that I had the brains to get a PhD and become a college professor, but he didn’t think I had enough “discipline.”

The letter below, dated April 23, 1994, was found among my files as I have been cleaning up my hard drive. I wrote it to that former adviser, detailing the hell I was going through the final spring [1994] I…