There is no one rock bottom. There are many. I had hit three before college.

A trio of expulsions from the finest boarding schools on the East Coast.

All for dumb reasons. Drinking, drugs. The usual bad behavior.

Each time, my father, Clyde Culver Jr., bailed me out.

He made speeches and gave warnings, and he threatened to cut me off.

I never listened.

The truth is, when I came down to it, I was my father's expensive projects, and he was

too proud to give up on.

He needed me to continue my family's legacy.

So, after I scraped out the graduation requirements from a last-up school in Utah,

a place you couldn't fail out of even if you tried.

My father secured a spot for me at his alma mater.

Alderbridge College.

My grandpa's alma mater, too.

The liberal arts jewel of New England.

It helps when your family's name is on the buildings. When I was young and brash, and in my world, everyone came from something.

What did I know of my own privilege?

My dad was the one who drove me up there, actually, to make sure I made it, to impart his final

warnings, but also to issue me an ultimatto, the one that changed my life.

For better, or worse.

Everything is a joke with you, Greg.

You don't appreciate your advantages.

...