I realized I could absolutely learn anything that I wanted to learn. In 1989 I learned to race cars while preparing for Days of Thunder. And about 10 years ago I learned to fly. When I was studying for my pilot's license, I kept a model airplane nearby as reference and pictures of a cockpit in front of me so I could study the instruments. I would often go over to a shop where mechanics were working on planes. Finally I took off on my own from the Santa Monica Airport. After the flight I called my mom, and she started crying. My family is very close and they were so happy for me.

I'm now a founding board member of the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project (H.E.L.P.), which opened its doors in 1997. H.E.L.P. is a non-profit program that uses the Study Technology in a totally secular setting to provide free tutoring in communities all over the world. Before this, I was supporting Applied Scholastics, H.E.L.P.'s parent organization, which was started by teachers to make Study Technology available broadly. When you consider that schoolteachers are sometimes dealing with four or five different levels of literacy in one classroom, you can see what they have to contend with. I had so many different teachers and I really feel for them. I see how they struggled with me. They were rooting for me and cared about me and wanted to see me do well, but they didn't have the tools to really help me.

I don't want people to go through what I went through. I want kids to have the ability to read, to write, to understand what people are saying to them, to be able to solve life's problems. If you're flying a plane, and you are using all you know, and yet barely keeping it in the air, you're not truly flying that plane. When the fuel gauge gets down to "E" and you haven't paid attention, your engine is going to stop. When you know how to fly, you're watching the instruments. You can properly prepare for landing. You can keep your view outside. That's the view of life people should be able to have.
 
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