No one cares how much you know.

My Mom would say this to me every time I made impressive points that were based on ingenuity, creativity, and intellect. She taught me that true intelligence is based on being able to speak to people properly and appropriately based on what they need, not what I or anyone else feels someone else needs to know. It’s taken years to refine myself to live up to my Mother’s incredible outlook as well as expectation/belief in my capability to rise to the challenge. While I’ll always be learning to refine what I’ve cultivated over my life to speak to people based on what they need and not what I deem necessary, I’m pleased with my daily improvement. This encourages me to keep going and striving, irrespective of my many shortcomings, failures, and missteps.