We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves.

Patti Smith’s life went through many different chapters: First a factory assembly-line worker and a spoken-word poet, she rose to a successful career as a singer-songwriter and wrote a series of autobiographical books later in life. Her first of these, “Just Kids,” written about her experience as a struggling artist in 1960s New York City, earned a National Book Award and a place on the “New York Times” bestseller list. Smith is considered a female pioneer of punk rock, lighting the way for other women in that male-dominated world. Her growth as a multidisciplinary artist reminds us that change is good for the human spirit and that evolving to discover our most authentic selves can bring bounties we can’t even imagine.