“Maybe you won’t hear this,” said his father, “because I know I definitely didn’t listen to my dad at your age, but I have to at least try to say it: you don’t know yourself, Abbott. Nobody knows who they are until they go out and adversity strips away the phony parts, makes a mockery of all the lies you tell yourself. Inside your little cocoon, you can convince yourself that you can do anything, that you could succeed if you were given the right chances. But that’s all just an illusion until it’s tested. You’re still new. Nobody’s taken you out of the package yet.”
