Charlotte Pence - Where You Go: Life Lessons from My Father

C harlotte Rose Pence came into this world on Friday, June 25, 1993, and she has been a wonder and a blessing in our lives ever since.

Karen and I couldnt be more proud of all our kidsa son who is a United States Marine with a strong and talented wife, and another daughter who is studying law at one of the nations premier schools and who has a heart for the wider world. But Charlotte was the only one of our children whose path we saw from early on: Charlotte Pence is a writer.

As a little girl sandwiched between a precocious older brother and a sweet baby sister, Charlotte was the classic middle childquiet, helpful, nurturing, and always watching everything that was happening around her. You could see it in her eyes, while even at a very young age, she would be standing off to the side as our family went through the hustle and bustle of public life.

She didnt say much, but she was always observing, learning, andas this book attestsshe was always storing up precious memories in that tender heart. Now we know it was all so she could tell better stories later.

Charlotte has always been a storyteller. She and her sister shared a small bedroom for most of their childhood and it didnt take us long to realize that the murmuring we heard behind closed doors after bedtime prayers was Charlotte telling Audrey a storymade up as she went alongjust to help her little sister fall asleep.

One of my most vivid images of her youth was minted one day when I looked out the kitchen window of our house only to see Charlotte sitting in the grass facing an assembled audience of all her stuffed animals and dolls. Charlotte was telling them a story.

As my political career was just getting started and our prospects for public service were widening before us, knowing her love of writing, I would occasionally tease her that someday she would write a book about her old Dad, never really thinking she would. Whenever I said it, Charlotte would roll her eyes and say, sure Dad but give me that soft smile of encouragement that told me she thought that someday she might just do that.

And now, here we arenot so many years from all those precious memoriesand our remarkable daughter has done just that with the publication of Where You Go. As you read this book, I am confident you will come to appreciate her unique ability to communicate with the written word.

In the pages of this book, just like the essays she published during her time studying at the University of Oxford and the Instagram account for her pet rabbit that would attract 30,000 followers and inspire her first book, Marlon Bundos A Day in the Life of the Vice President (Regnery, 2018), you will see that Charlotte Pence just has a way of writing that elevates while still speaking in the voice of her generation.

You will see what her mother and I have seen for many yearsa gifted pen, an authentic voice, and a capacity to tell stories that convey timeless truth with humility and humor. You will also see that this book is not so much about her old Dad, but it is about our family. Our Charlotte has preserved moments from our little familys story that I cannot read without tears from a heart grateful for Gods grace. I suspect our story is not so different from yours, and my hope is that the lessons she so tenderly conveys here will resonate and encourage you and many American families who have faced choices, challenges, and triumphs, only to learn that those whom you love and the faith you share are what matter most. Charlotte has captured that truth in this winsome book and my prayer is that it will be as much a blessing to you as our writer has been to us every day of her life.

Signed,

Mike Pence

Proud Father and Vice President of the United States

May 2018

Washington, D.C.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and II took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken