My father was a member of the Communist Party. Seeing the advantages we as a family had because of that, I thought that Communism was something I could live for. I wanted to be a part of something, and when I was in High School, I became a Communist youth leader; I felt I was fulfilling my life purpose until the Romanian revolution in 1989 when communism fell and all my "glorious" future fell too. I didn't know what to do with the new freedoms we gained after the revolution that December.

In High School, I realized that life was passing me by. I became determined to change things, to find fulfillment.  I looked to people who I felt were successful and started to imitate their ways. I changed the way I walked, I learned the "in" things to say and jokes to tell, and I got myself a girl friend. Still, deep inside me, I knew that I was missing out on something.