Once and for All

The dead aren't the only ones who vanish: you, too, can disappear in plain sight if enough is taken from you. I was still missing, in many ways. And I wasn't sure I wanted to be found.

It's about the courage to go for what you want, not just what you think you need. Sometimes we don't even know what that is.

You stop believing in wishes when the only one you want to make can never come true.

Isn't that the way everything begins? A night, a love, a once and for all.

But you never know what you can do until you try, and if you're lucky, what you love will always be waiting for you

You can’t measure love by time put in, but the weight of those moments. Some in life are light, like a touch. Others, you can’t help but stagger beneath.

Everything in life had its phases, and if you were smart, you learned to appreciate them all. What really mattered, though, were the people in those moments with you. Memories are what we have and what we keep, and I held mine close. The ones I knew well, like a night on the beach with a boy who would always live in my heart, and the ones yet to come with another.

Sometimes forgetting was just as bad as remembering.

For you, I wish for second chances

I put my pen to the paper and began to write. I’d made so many wishes for so many couples quietly in my head as they drove away, but writing the words out made it seem more real, possible. For them, and maybe for me. FOR YOU, I WISH FOR SECOND CHANCES. I folded it shut, then put it on the wall before I could change my mind, right above Jilly’s. As Michael Salem called out to her and she started his way, I crossed the backyard, moving toward the music. When I looked back at the wish wall from a distance, it was a sea of squares: I couldn’t even find mine among them. So many things we ask for, hope for, prayers put out into a world so wide: there was no way they could all be answered. But you had to keep asking. If you didn’t, nothing even had a chance of coming true.

I don't think anybody ever really knows what's going to happen," he said. "We're all just out here hoping for the best.

Well, here we are," Ethan said. "The end of the world." I smiled, turning slightly to take in the full view. "It's different to what I expected." "The big stuff always is," he said.

It took a lot to have hope in this world where so little evidence of it existed. Maybe if nothing bad had ever happened, you didn’t even consider those clouds and storms ahead. But for the rest of us, even the brightest sunshine carried a chance of rain.

Life didn't begin cleanly, and it surely never ended that way. We were blessed with whatever we had in the middle. It made sense that it be messy, too.

I don’t think I like you.” “A common reaction,” he replied. “I’ll win you over. Eventually.” She

So many things we ask for, hope for, prayers put out into a world so wide: there was no way they could all be answered. But you had to keep asking. If you didn't, nothing even had a chance of coming true.

Careful," she called out to me, her voice sharp; part admonishment, part warning. But I'd been that way all this time, and it hadn't changed a thing. Maybe it was better to barrel through life, breaking fragile things and catching on every jagged edge. Neat or messy, calm or crazy, I still ended up in this same place.

It was rare for things to be perfect and organized anyway, even with your best efforts. Embrace the messy and when things do come together just right, you'll always be pleasantly surprised.

What was it like to be so confident even in your failings that you weren't the least bit bothered when other people pointed them out? I was almost envious.

People will tell you what they want you to know.

Attention from a cute boy—you could power the world with it.

For some reason, blame is often directed toward me. I have to be vigilant.

Life seemed so much more manageable when you could write it down neatly on paper.

I hate not having what I want

I never expected anything from anyone. Which was not the same thing as not wanting, ever, to be surprised.

May you always have the answers to each other's most important questions.

I was doing it again, jumping around. But it was so hard to start at the beginning when you knew how it would end.

In a perfect wedding- or world- you wanted the best possible beginning. Start in a high note and, no matter what song follows, chances are just better that it will be music to your ears.