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On Your Own Quotes

Browse 13 quotes about On Your Own.

On Your Own Quotes

“You can't take risks like that." "Everything turned out fine." My mom probably thinks she was right and I'm not capable of making a trip like this on my own without someone to guide me and keep me safe. But someday they'll be gone, and I'll have to live my life without their guidance. Maybe without Jonathan's, although that thought fills me with immeasurable pain and sadness. This road trip isn't my first or only attempt at independence, but it's an important step toward laying down a foundation for the years to come. And I'm not so dense that I don't know that most people are younger than thirty-two when they achieve it. I've lagged behind everyone my whole life, so why would my adulthood be any different?”

“We're all on our own, aren't we? That's what it boils down to. We come into this world on our own- in Hawaii, as I did, or New York, or China, or Africa or Montana- and we leave it in the same way, on our own, wherever we happen to be at the time- in a plane, in our beds, in a car, in a space shuttle, or in a field of flowers. And between those times, we try to connect along the way with others who are also on their own. If we're lucky, we have a mother who reads to us. We have a teacher or two along the way who make us feel special. We have dogs who do the stupid dog tricks we teach them and who lie on our bed when we're not looking, because it smells like us, and so we pretend not to notice the paw prints on the bedspread. We have friends who lend us their favorite books. Maybe we have children, and grandchildren, and funny mailmen and eccentric great-aunts, and uncles who can pull pennies out of their ears. All of them teach us stuff. They teach us about combustion engines and the major products of Bolivia, and what poems are not boring, and how to be kind to each other, and how to laugh, and when the vigil is in our hands, and when we have to make the best of things even though it's hard sometimes. Looking back together, telling our stories to one another, we learn how to be on our own.”