st everyone has asked those questions. In his book, BIGGEST, FULLEST, BRIGHTEST: Shifting the Consciousness of Humanity, Matthew Reynolds tells his story of struggling to find a place of belonging in a world that continually tells him he isn't good enough. He experienced strife from the day he was born to a white mother and Black father in the time before interracial marriage was legal or accepted. As a child, he became aware that he was attracted to the same gender and recognized that being Black and gay made him doubly different and perceived as very much "less than." Driven by an overwhelming desire to blend in, he created a persona that allowed him to function in the world . . . but, at what cost? In order to find himself and reclaim his true identity, the author has spent his entire life doing the grueling Work necessary to achieve that goal. Extensive research, professional assistance, and his lived experiences have unveiled subconscious coping mechanisms that allowed him to survive, but not to LIVE. What's more, he discovered that he was not alone in living a lie, and the devices he used to get by were, in fact, universal. This book invites you to explore the reasons why you think the way that you do. It will take you on a journey through your past to your present and helps craft your future. A future that is based in equity, love and respect. When you finish this book the hope is that everyone will be valued for who they are, and not for what they have, or what they look like. Recognizing that the first step in achieving that is for each of us to allow ourselves the same grace. This book is more than a memoir-- it is a guided journey into your past that has shaped your present. Along the way, you will be given tools to create a better future for yourself and the world around you. Your bigger, fuller, brighter future.