The Labors of Hercules Beal

So I'm not telling you not to be angry, Beal. That would be telling you not to be a human being. I'm telling you not to act when you're angry. There's a difference" -Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer

We are here to help you carry the sky when you have to, and we are here to help you put it down when you need to. Why else would anyone ever become a teacher?

You know, Beal, you've been fighting a whole lot of monsters this year, monsters much more real than any the mythical Hercules fought. And you've been fighting stuff that's come at you out of the blue. And one of it is fair, and none of it is right, and none of it is anything you've deserved. That's the world, Beal. But you haven't crumbled, have you? And you haven't disappeared. You're still here. And the truth is, no matter what happened with your parents, and no matter what happens with Elly, you're still going to be here." -Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer

I know this doesn't sound like some sort of earth-shattering new idea that's going to change the universe. But I wonder if what Hercules was most afraid of when he was holding up the sky wasn't that he was going to have to hold it up forever. It was that he was going to have to hold it up forever while he was by himself. THat's a kind of scary thing to think about. Maybe, the stuff we hold up, we don't have to hold up by ourselves all the time. Maybe sometimes we can let someone else hold is up too. Maybe that's how we can get by. Maybe.

Sometimes being still is the hardest thing to do - but in fact, the most productive." -Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer

Here's the first rule: Bad things happen that you can't fix. Here's the second rule: You have to live with the first rule. Here's the third rule: The first two rules stink.

Isn’t one of those Labors going down to hell?” “There and back,” said Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer. “As I indicated to Ms. de la Peña, it’s a tough world, Beal.” He leaned down over me and whispered, so quietly that no one else could hear, “But I think you already know that.

Maybe, the stuff we hold up, we don’t have to hold up by ourselves all the time. Maybe sometimes we can let someone else hold it up too. Maybe that’s how we can get by. Maybe that’s how we can do a whole lot better than just get by.

Here's what it's like to go into hell: anything horrible that came before this crash is replayed for you, at rapid speed, with heightened lightning, with louder sound, with brighter colors, with higher production values than you can imagine. You can't stop it, and you can't stop it, and you can't stop it.

It's a tough world, Sugimoto.

But hell is like a storm, you know. You can't predict everything it's going to do.

When you don't have much choice, you can't waste time on regrets.

Courage is shown in what we do, not in what we’re feeling. I think you showed real courage.

Everyone should have their fourth grade teacher live down the street from them.

Most people don't think we even look like brothers," I said. "You do when you're asleep," she said. "Your face relaxes, and you stop worrying, and all that grit you two carry around falls away, and you're just you.

And when Achilles went inside the Vampire said to me, "You all right?" I nodded. "I'm okay." "Okay is good enough for now," she said.

I do point out this, for what it’s worth: you are not alone. You think your teachers lifted crab apple trees all Sunday for the blisters? They did it in gratitude for what you and your brother have done for the Academy, and in support of you especially, because you are our student. We are here to help you carry the sky when you have to, and we are here to help you put it down when you need to. Why else would anyone ever become a teacher?

I have six. May I have seven?

The question is, why?” he said. “Because maybe sometimes,” I said, “you can get something back even when you think it’s lost.

It's a tough world, Beal.