Growing up, my aunts would always put in hair ties and bows and all kinds of stuff, and I always hated it.

My father is German; my mother is African-American. Growing up, I visited my grandparents in Berlin a lot. I would not see any other person of color for three weeks. People would stare. They would say things like, 'Oh, you look like chocolate - I want to eat you up!'

For me, a big thing growing up was naturalness - both in being and appearance. My mom never let me relax my natural hair. For so long, I thought I was ugly, and I still sometimes struggle with that. But now I've come to feel like this is me.

Growing up I definitely, definitely had a bunch of things of, 'Um, am I black enough?' - and I guess specifically, 'Am I German enough?' Why are we measuring blackness?

Whenever I am among my fellow Governors, I am struck by how many face the same education improvement issues.

I didn't have any work to do, and I had files of my personal and Guns N' Roses financial statements for the previous eight years. I wanted to learn how to read these, but I didn't trust anybody. I just got a lightbulb in my head and said, 'I want to go to school.' That began my journey, taking accountancy and business classes at Seattle.

With longer life spans and better health and education, many feel that giving birth to a baby a mere couple of decades after they themselves were in the cradle is a little premature.

I remember when I was in school I had this teacher give me this E.L. Doctorow quote: They asked him how much historical research he does for his books and he said, 'As little as possible.' So I try and adhere to that.