What’s really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.

The oration of poetry, I consider to be its own art form and tradition.

The great responsibility I feel is to get people to put that power and that hope in themselves.

Poetry has never been the language of barriers, it’s always been the language of bridges.

I was writing since I can remember – I just didn’t know it was poetry yet, or that writing could be a career.

You’re the one who is weak. You will never know love or friendship. And I feel sorry for you.

Goodness can be found sometimes in the middle of hell.

If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.

The good you find in others is a reflection of the good that is in yourself.

Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing.

Our scars are the brightest parts of us.

You should not judge; you should understand.

We might not be fully sure of all that we are. & yet we have endured all that we were.

Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.

To love one another just may be the fight of our lives.

Empathy means understanding others on their own terms and bringing them into the orbit of one’s own experience.