My parents were good people, who surprised themselves and others by rising from poverty to a secure, lower middle class life, respected and respectable.

I grew up soft in some places, broken in others, and hard where I should have been yielding.

I did not continue their rise, did not add any shine to the family name, but instead frittered away my privileges and opportunities on sloth and indulgence, an unwillingness to grow up and face the world as it really is.

A disappointment - I can see it now - to myself and others.

I thought everything was going to be OK.