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Coming Of Age Quotes

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Coming Of Age Quotes

“I know more about my father than I used to know: I know he wanted to be a pilot in the war but could not, because the work he did was considered essential to the war effort… I know he grew up on a farm in the backwoods of Nova Scotia, where they didn’t have running water or electricity. This is why he can build things and chop things… He did his high school courses by correspondence, sitting at the kitchen table and studying by the light by a kerosene lamp; he put himself through university by working in lumber camps and cleaning out rabbit hutches, and was so poor he lived in a tent in the summers to save money… All this is known, but unimaginable. Also I wish I did not know it. I want my father to be just my father, the way he has always been, not a separate person with an earlier, mythological life of his own. Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened.”

FamilyGrowing UpParentsComing Of Age
Book:Cat’s Eye
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“I imagined the lies the valedictorian was telling them right now. About the exciting future that lies ahead. I wish she'd tell them the truth: Half of you have gone as far in life as you're ever going to. Look around. It's all downhill from here. The rest of us will go a bit further, a steady job, a trip to Hawaii, or a move to Phoenix, Arizona, but out of fifteen hundred how many will do anything truly worthwhile, write a play, paint a painting that will hang in a gallery, find a cure for herpes? Two of us, maybe three? And how many will find true love? About the same. And enlightenment? Maybe one. The rest of us will make compromises, find excuses, someone or something to blame, and hold that over our hearts like a pendant on a chain.”

GrowthYoung AdultInsightTeenagerMaturityComing Of AgeGraduation
Book:White Oleander
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“When I first moved out on my own, whenever my mom visited she would fill my freezer with individual containers of various stews, kookoo [Persian frittatas], aash [soups], and rice dishes.... These days when I visit my mom, I try to fill her freezer with some of these same favorites. The cycle always comes full circle. Hopefully with a packed freezer ready to serve, feed, and comfort.”

FoodCookingIranComing Of AgeParents And ChildrenPersianPersian CuisineIranian Cuisine
Book:Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories
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“As we walked home, I knew from far away the trees would've looked nice, the grass would've looked green, and we would've looked like just a couple of boys walking home, armed with Midwest love and Bible Belt morals. But up close, the trees were scorched, the grass was dead, and the boys were on the verge of tears with the belts of those morals tightening around their necks, threatening to hang them if they dared step off the stool of masculinity.”

Coming Of AgeMorals
Book:The Summer that Melted Everything
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“She stands at the hairpin turn on Night Road. On either side of her, giant evergreens grow clustered together, rising high into the blue summer sky. Even now, in midday, this stubbled, winding ribbon of asphalt holds the morning mist close. This road is like her life; knee deep in shadow. Once, it had been the quickest way home and she’d taken it easily, turning onto its potholed surface without a second thought, rarely noticing how the earth dropped away on either edge. Her mind had been on other things back then, on the miniutae of everyday life. Chores. Errands. Schedules. She hadn’t taken this route in years. Just the thought of it had been enough to make her turn the steering wheel too sharply; better to go off the road than to find herself here. Or so she’d thought until today. People on the island still talk about what happened in the summer of ’04. They sit on barstools and in porch swings and spout opinions, half truths, making judgments that aren’t theirs to make. They think a few columns in a newspaper give them the facts they need. But the facts are hardly what matter. If anyone sees her here, just standing on this lonely roadside in a gathering mist, it will all come up again. Like her, they’ll remember that night, so long ago, when the rain turned to ash….”

LoveDeathLife LessonsFamilyTragedyRedemptionComing Of AgeRestorationAccident
Book:Night Road
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“In childhood, overhearing everyday conversations among relatives about collectivization, famine, war, and political repression, I perceived these stories as curious — sometimes frightening — episodes my loved ones had endured. Although they belonged to a past not so distant, I felt them as something that had happened long ago, almost like events that occurred only slightly later than the fairy tales I loved so much. Much of what I heard I did not yet understand, but my young memory — still largely unfilled — carefully recorded these fragments of history, preserving events and facts deep within its silent annals.” — Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book One. Author's foreword Context note: This reflection from the author’s foreword shows how the collective trauma of the early twentieth century entered a child’s consciousness indirectly — through family conversations, half-understood words, and inherited memory. What first felt distant and almost mythical would later reveal itself as lived history, shaping both the author’s worldview and the moral foundation of the novel.”

WarComing Of AgeFamineFamily HistoryChildhood MemoryCollective MemoryPolitical RepressionUssr HistoryHistorical MemoryHistorical Trauma
Book:Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга перша. Перші кроки до світла та назад: Дитинство та занурення в ГУЛАГ.
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“Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person “the world today” or “life” or “reality” he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever. For me, this moment—four years is a moment in history—was the war. The war was and is reality for me. I still instinctively live and think in its atmosphere. These are some of its characteristics: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the President of the United States, and he always has been. The other two eternal world leaders are Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin. America is not, never has been, and never will be what the songs and poems call it, a land of plenty. Nylon, meat, gasoline, and steel are rare. There are too many jobs and not enough workers. Money is very easy to earn but rather hard to spend, because there isn’t very much to buy. Trains are always late and “always crowded with “servicemen.” The war will always be fought very far from America and it will never end. Nothing in America stands still for very long, including the people, who are always either leaving or on leave. People in America cry often. Sixteen is the key and crucial and natural age for a human being to be, and people of all other ages are ranged in an orderly manner ahead of and behind you as a harmonious setting for the sixteen-year-olds of this world.”

WarComing Of Age
Book:A Separate Peace
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“No, everybody's gotta learn, nobody's born knowin'. That Walter's as smart as he can be, he just gets held back sometimes because he has to stay out and help his daddy. Nothin's wrong with him. Naw, Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks." .... "That's what I thought too," he said at last, "when I was your age. If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time . . . it's because he wants to stay inside.”

SadComing Of AgeJemMaturingLeeScoutFinchRadley
Book:To Kill A Mockingbird: Harper Lee -- Book Summary And Analysis!
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“If I had been more independent in my thinking then, I would have thought the matter through to a conclusion. But in those days it was easy for me to leave tangled thoughts knotted, their loose ends hanging. I didn't want to explore the treacherous mazes that such thoughts led into. I didn't want to reach the end of those mazes, because there, I knew, I would find myself and I was afraid I would not recognize myself after having taken so many confusing directions. I was beginning to suspect that I was not the person I was expected to be, and took it as evidence that somewhere I had taken a wrong turning.”

IndependenceAwakeningSelf DiscoveryComing Of AgeDeconstruction
Book:Nervous Conditions
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“Adulthood is when we discover who we are. It's when we figure out some really important stuff-like what our strengths and weaknesses are, what our unique individual gifts are. Also, what shortcomings we must mitigate. It's when go through that very important process of introspection, soul-searching, self-discovery. If we do not go though this process, we inevitably become unhappy people who wake up in the morning, empty, afraid, and unfulfilled.”

Self DiscoveryComing Of AgeMaturing
Book:The Properties of Perpetual Light
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“A motorcycle is a vehicle of change, after all. It puts the wheels beneath a midlife crisis, or a coming-of-age saga, or even just the discovery of something new, something you didn't realize was there. It provides the means to cross over, to transition, or to revitalize; motorcycles are self-discovery's favorite vehicle.”

ChangeSelf DiscoverySomething NewComing Of AgeTransitionMidlife CrisisMotorcyclesRevitalizationWhy We Ride
Book:Motorcycles I've Loved: A Memoir
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“Life's trials will test you, and shape you, but don’t let them change who you are.” ~ Aaron Lauritsen, ‘100 Days Drive”

LifeBelieveLightInspirationTruthHappinessSuccessJoyLife LessonsValuesFaithHumanityQuotesSpiritualityHopeOpportunityEnergyChangeFreedomCompassionDestinyPowerCourageStruggleJourneyStrengthAcceptancePositive ThinkingHumilityAdventurePerspectivePrideConfidenceGratitudeTravelAmbitionRespectDeterminationLuckCompetitionSmileSatisfactionAccomplishQuote Of The DayGoalsAwakeningHealMemoirWanderConquerFearlessJudgementAuthorWriterInner StrengthCherishComing Of AgeTeamworkParenthoodDreamerLove YourselfLearnFreeLaughBe ProudSoarDream BigEnjoy LifeFollow Your DreamsNever QuitLiberatingLimitlessInner BeautyFollow Your HeartForgiveGoal SettingDon T Give UpNo RegretsService To OthersExploreCrossroadsContentGoals In LifeFresh StartReflectionsBestsellerChancesWanderlustBe HappyRisk TakingEmpowerRoad TripDig DeepNomadLove Thy NeighborBohemianResiliencyThick SkinThink Outside The BoxFind YourselfConquer FearHigh RoadChase DreamsLiberateLive Life QuotesFollow Your Own PathOpen RoadLove ThyselfSoul FoodDon T Worry Be HappyOne Life100daysdrivePush LimitsStart All OverBreak BarriersGood Soul100 Days DriveControl Your LifeCarmaStaystrongBestrongWateroffaducksback
Book:100 Days Drive: The Great North American Road Trip
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“If you ever get lost, you can get your bearings and find your way home. Just remember to find Buffalo Butte and head toward that.”

HomeLife LessonsHopeGuidanceComing Of AgeInspirational FictionGrandparent BondSmall Town Story
Book:A Stone's Throw: A heartwarming story of a city girl and her rancher grandfather turning adversity into love and community
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