Page 2: "Was I
afraid to compete, or was I just genuinely not interested?"
Page 6: "'This is a make-each-moment-count time, everybody, because who knows where we'll be a year from now?'" "And I wondered why, just as in physics, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction; for every new thing I looked forward to after high school, there seemed to be some opposite feeling I could hardly describe..."
Page 24: "There ought to be a recess. A time-out. Some plateau you could count on where absolutely nothing happened, good or bad, and you could catch your breath. When did that happen? After your married? Had your children? Retired? Never?"
Page 28: "It always amazes me how some of the most beautiful girls don't even know they're gorgeous enough."
Page 32: "I want a guy who loves all of me, not just a part. 'It's a package deal'..."
Page 37: "...I'd feel I'd be letting them down. I just... what if I'm saying no because I'm afraid I'll fail?...And how do I know if I might be refusing for the wrong reasons?"
Page 38: "I keep telling myself that if I say no, I'm closing a door...and I will have lost the chance..., to have that honor."
Page 40: "You guys are good at hiding feelings from each other."
Page 41: "...It's a lot less scary when you recognize what you're feeling instead of trying to hide it from yourself." "Remind yourself of the things you've faced in the past and how you managed to get through them." "'I guess you sort of have to take a deep breath and tell yourself to get over it...' 'No. Not get over it. Get through it. Go into it staying up front with yourself and remind yourself of all the ways you have of coping.'"
Page 44: "Of I'm missing something. But I've never Taj Mahal either. I never played the violin. I never wrote a novel or learned to fly or met a president...I think, 'we're all incomplete in some way.' I don't know anyone who has done
everything she wanted to do in life."
Page 65: "But sometimes we find out we're a lot braver than we think."
Page 71: "
Just do it! I told myself.
Get up there and take a chance...I was doing this for me. I'd made a decision, and right or wrong, it was mine."
Page 98: "If you want to meet a guy who shares your interests, get involved in things you love."
Page 127: " 'Life is what happens when you're planning something else.' "
Page 140: "You open your mind to the world, Alice. That's what makes you you."
Page 242: "The secret is to make a list before you turn in all you have to do the next day so you won't forget something. Then tell yourself that those things are off-limits once you get int bed. You'll deal with them tomorrow."
Page 144: " 'What if I get so nervous that I throw up?'....'That's what custodians are for, Alice.' "
Page 190: "That's me--always jumping ahead. Planning my life weeks, months, years ahead instead of savoring each minute of every day."
Page 200:...--about how you can be curious and intellectual and all the rest right where you are at the moment. You didn't have to go to someplace big."
Page 202: "And it's okay to feel sad along with happy, loss along with gain, regret along with excitement. It's part of the process. Expected, in fact."
Page 204: "How could you ever try anything new if you had to be good at it first?"
Page 205: "But maybe we make time for the things that we like best."
Page 220: "I just get annoyed when people aren't honest with me"
Page 235: "
If only the here and now could last forever..."
Page 250: "I had a checklist of things I needed to complete for every class before finals, and I set myself on automatic."
Page 252: "You want [him] to come back to you because he
wants to, not because he said he would."
Page 277: "She thanked our parents for all they had done for us and said that graduation was a fork in the road in many ways, but we would be choosing the best parts of our parents to take along with us on life's journey, leaving the rest behind,...And it was this fork in the road, this choosing, these choices, that would, hopefully, make the world a better place."
