I assumed that I would write about sports, because then I could go to games for free and sit in the press box, which sounded like a great way to spend my time here on Earth. And although I have written about sports, for the most part I’ve gravitated toward chronicling the lives of people who are ignored, misunderstood, stereotyped, or outside the mainstream.

A friend once asked me, “Why don’t you ever write about normal people?” Normal people? Good luck finding those, I told him. As the saying goes, The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.