answer:This is an easy question for me to answer. It was my college English professor telling me I should leave Texas and move to NYC, which he somehow believed I had the chops to tackle. It took me a while to work up the nerve, but with his encouragement and that from my native-Texan mother (who loved visiting friends in the City) and my NY-native dad (who relocated to Texas after the WW2 to marry her), I did it at 19. That move totally changed the trajectory of my life. It gave me my education and career, and it exposed me to culture, politics, ideas and much else which I would never have experienced so fully in my hometown – and which make me who I am today. Thank you, Professor.