He was a breath of fresh air after the heart wrenching storm that had engulfed me.

His strength kept me moving forward, and it was also tearing me apart.

I had to sever my emotional cord to escape the anger and shame that silently slithered through my head, disconnecting myself from the stares and whispers that followed me down the hall.

Not being liked was so much worse than being invisible.

It was more important for me to try, than to not have the chance at all.

He leaned toward me and delicately grazed my lips with his. The tease left me breathless, burning for more. “I keep having to remind myself that I can do that, ” he smirked.

These past two days, I’ve seen a fire in your eyes that I never have before. Granted, it’s mostly anger and frustration, but it’s still emotion.

I knew in that moment, I would never love anyone in my life the way I loved Evan Mathews.

Knowing you were right down the hall was way too hard. I couldn’t do it, ” Evan declared, sliding under the covers next to me.

You are not showing her my baby pictures!” He sounded horrified, which made me laugh. “Come on, Evan, ” I teased with a laughing smile, “you were adorable.

Oh! Did you hear that Haley Spencer asked him to homecoming?” she exclaimed. “Of course I didn’t. You’re my source of gossip, remember?

Owning her face, unapologetically, or—even more revolutionarily—happily was the bravest thing she could possibly do.

Ponder upon the many misgivings of man and you shall be eternally in the state of pondering. -

But I decided I wanted more education and I had to make a choice between starting law school, which was interesting to me, and going for a graduate degree in engineering.

Vulgarity is, in reality, nothing but a modern, chic, pert descendant of the goddess Dullness.

The greatest thing we can do to be closer to our own lives and to the freshness of living is to open up again.

Funerals prove that someone is really gone.

Xs were used because there was no mass literacy - a state we are rapidly approaching once more.

I had to persevere because this was my life. This championship, this was the stuff I dreamt of all my life, and I wasn't gonna be denied.

You have to compromise all the way. The only thing that counts is the result.

None of us is perfect, but the point of our writing is to try to become better, to learn something that we may not have already realized, about ourselves, about the world we inhabit.