How the Light Gets In

by Joyce Maynard

If you live long enough, everything happens. The good and the terrible. And it may be the case—it probably is—that a person’s glorious triumphs seldom serve as the best teachers of what it means to be human. The lessons are all in the failures. Failure keeps you humble. Failure opens your heart to all those other people out there who also fall short. It makes a person try to do better.