Reg R’s Reviews > Educated > Status Update

My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.

I was unable to distinguish between the fictional story and the factual backdrop. Napoleon felt more real to me that Jean Valjean. I had never heard of either.

He can’t explain where the conviction came from, or how it burned brightly enough to shine through the black uncertainty. But I’ve always supposed it was the music in his head, some hopeful tune the rest of us couldn’t hear, the same secret melody he’d been humming when he bought that trigonometry book, or saved all those pencil shavings.