To me, summer has always been about potential. This was especially true when I was in high school. Those 3 or so months between 1 school year and the next always meant change. People got taller or wider or smaller. They broke up or came together, lost friends or gained them, had life experiences that you could tell had transformed them even if you didn't know what they were. In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible. As a teenager, I was always hoping to change, to become someone other than who I was. Each summer, I felt I had the chance to do that. All I had to do was wait and see what happened.
Sarah Dessen
Related Even when I was a kid, I always showed up late for school every day. It got to the point where they ... ISAAC BROCK I had always sung in choirs. Even when it was something to be laughed at or made fun of, you know, i... SCOTT WEILAND The hardest part was when I was in high school not having a job and always being broke. I had to get... CUBA GOODING, JR. The environment I was raised in, you had to, to survive. MARK WAHLBERG When I was in elementary school, I'd see Nate on stage in high school. I always wanted to do a show ... JUSTIN BEGLE Anyways, that very same night there was a fight in the casino on B Deck. Some of the passengers got ... CHRISTINA ENGELA Summer was here again. Summer, summer, summer. I loved and hated summers. Summers had a logic all th... BENJAMIN ALIRE SáENZ [But she doesn't want to discuss the specifics of their relationship or any future offspring.] I lik... JENNIFER LOPEZ When I got out of the army, I had the G.I. Bill. Since I had no high school education or anything li... FRANK MCCOURT It was him, it was always him, they only needed to stand there with their feet buried into the muddy... C. JOYBELL C. Amma and i went to each house to tell them we were leaving. They all said, 'Don't forget us. Keep vi... VIVEK SHANBHAG When I was in high school, I had already kind of been working in the industry and had done a couple ... JILLIAN ROSE REED In high school I was the dog, always, and I never have felt comfortable or right in my body, and par... POPPY Z. BRITE I thought how you can never tell just by looking at them what they were thinking or what was happeni... DAVID ALMOND I didn't feel as if they always had me [as] part of their plans. It was like I was back on the back ... JUAN DIXON I had a sneaking suspicion that time was not constant, but I guess I could never prove it. I suppose... MARK A. ROEDER I was way behind physically in high school. They had weight bars that were about forty-five pounds. ... SCOTTIE PIPPEN I guess what really forms you as a person is what you do within your family to receive love or atten... EMMA WATSON I had a dream about you. You were a stranger playing a gig in this pub where I was waitressing. I fe... CRYSTAL WOODS I had always dreamed of living in Chapel Hill. When I was a college student at Hollins University in... LEE SMITH Each period had required me to be a slightly different person, and that was exhausting. I wondered i... GABRIELLE ZEVIN When I was coming up in high school, if you wanted to be in the musical it was during the winter, so... BEN SCHWARTZ When I was a kid, I never thought about anything. Never had to think about where I was going to scho... LARRY BIRD When I was in the play this summer, and Cody wasn't, we had about 30 minutes together each day. MELISSA HUGHES You still felt that life was passing you by? Sort of. I still had this idea that there was a wh... RICHARD YATES I was being singled out as the best in the class at this, that and the other, nearly always to do wi... ROLF HARRIS I was at the school this morning when the buses were arriving and I saw
.(the buses) had two to th... MAJ. RICKY GARDNER It never occurred to me that I was a leading man until I was 19 years old. I had been acting since I... CHRISTOPHER REEVE You know when you read that someone has to leave a show or a tour because they had 'nervous exha... DAVID JOHANSEN Well, thought Winnie, crossing her arms on the windowsill, she was different. Things had happ... NATALIE BABBITT I had never walked on the street alone when I was growing up in Calcutta, up to age 20. I had never ... BHARATI MUKHERJEE I always think about which blood drive was going on in Georgia that day when that husband or mom or ... NIKI TAYLOR I never felt that I belonged. When I was at school... First I went to a Jewish school, when I was ve... CHANTAL AKERMAN I had a choice to move up in a Fortune 500 company, which they put the option in front of me, or go ... ANTHONY MARLOWE It was awkward because the high school that I went to, my aunt taught at, it was this private boy... IAN HARDING The distance between us, and I had never thought of this before, was that they did not know this, an... JAMES BALDWIN I had always been quiet and studious in school. I was the high school editor of the newspaper. CAROL BURNETT Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense. To make this all go away. And disappear.... STEPHEN CHBOSKY I had no idea what I was going to do when they threw me out of school. DON JOHNSON I can remember every moment we were together, and in each of them there was something wonderful. I c... NICHOLAS SPARKS You know, I was a nerdy kid going through high school, and then I got to college and that all vanish... BRANDON SANDERSON I did musical theater, and I did dancing for what it was at the performing arts high school that I w... CASSIE VENTURA When I got into Stanford in high school, I had some friends from school who told me that I just got ... STERLING K. BROWN When I was in high school, I ran hurdles, but I was really short, so I'd barely clear them. I was pr... CHRIS KIRKPATRICK By the time I was in high school, Roe v. Wade had passed, so that was also happening; girls were get... ANNETTE BENING I became an electrician after high school. But I always had this thing in me to write. But it was al... NICK FLYNN Steve's head dropped and stared at his feet. After a weighty, uncomfortable pause, he issued a chall... WALTER ISAACSON Dad was a baker, and we lived above the bakery, so I was always popping down to have an apple pie or... PAUL HOLLYWOOD You know, even growing up going to school, I had teachers that were against bilingual teaching. I ne... EMILY RIOS I was working hard over the summer to get my grades straight to maintain eligibility when I noticed ... TREMELL JACK I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justifie... F. SCOTT FITZGERALD I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified.... F. SCOTT FITZGERALD Doo-wop is the true music to me, man. Doo-wop was what nurtured me and grew me into who I am, and I ... AARON NEVILLE That was huge for us because to that point right there I wasn't sure what kind of kids I had this ye... MARCELO ENRIQUEZ I was always trying to do different things to entertain people. And, at the same time I think I was,... MARILYN MANSON When I was in high school, I ran hurdles, but I was really short, so I'd barely clear them. I wa... CHRIS KIRKPATRICK I tell people 'America's Got Talent' is the best summer job you could have - you get to ... NICK CANNON My mom was always keen I stayed in school and got good grades, and she was always keen for me to do ... IAIN DE CAESTECKER In reality, I've always been an actor - since I was a kid. I did theater growing up in New York.... ZACH MCGOWAN When I was at school, you had to choose; there was a lot of pressure to assimilate. You were an Auss... JONATHAN LAPAGLIA Certainly by the time I was in seventh grade, I knew I had to have a long education if I wanted to b... NANCY ROMAN The first crime was mine: I committed it when I made man mortal. Once I had done that, what was left... JEAN-PAUL SARTRE What made more sense was that the bargain she was bound to was to go on living as she had been doing... ALICE MUNRO The Headmaster told Professor Flitwick that this was, indeed, a secret and delicate matter of which ... ELIEZER YUDKOWSKY I'm from Ohio, and I wasn't one of those kids who grew up making movies or whatever, but I a... DAVID LESLIE JOHNSON With everything going on in my life – going on in my head – I wanted to talk with you. Really ta... JAY ASHER I think a lot of people were taken aback last summer that so much construction was happening at the ... CAMI GRICHEL I was in this public high school in Princeton, and it had this topnotch jazz program - if you were a... DAMIEN CHAZELLE When I got a chance, I went back and shared those experiences that were important to me. George Wash... JOHNNY MATHIS I was really young when I swam at Ridgewood. I don't remember much besides that I was a little kid w... MATT DIEHL I started dancing when I was about 15 or 16 in my high school drama club, and then I liked it so muc... GARRETT CLAYTON I was always told at school that you had to have a back-up plan, but all I ever wanted to do was act... AARON JOHNSON When neither of them had any alcoholic drinks there was no problem. But when they'd had drinks and t... ADALBERTO OLIVEIRA We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant eve... JENNY HAN me and this girl at school were always trying to mess each others life up but i was tired of it and ... DALLY SALAD I was in high school. A couple of my friends and I decided we had to be in a class together where we... ADAM BEACH When I was a little girl at school, I really wanted to be Katie or Sarah or Sophie. When you're ... VIVA BIANCA I always liked my teachers, and I was in a lot of after-school projects. I was a Girl Scout until my... AMY SEDARIS What bothered me more than if LeBron left or not was that I didn't think they had great assets i... CHAUNCEY BILLUPS At 11, I went to Misha's school for two summers. So when I wasn't in that school, I was taki... SASCHA RADETSKY I'd always loved strings. When I was in high school and saw strings playing on stage, an orchest... ISAAC HAYES I had always choreographed a little, beginning in high school. And I leaned toward choreography. I a... PATRICIA BIRCH There was a time in childhood when I didn't yet know I was ugly. Then there was a time when I believ... C.S. LEWIS When I was 11, I realised that I did not have to live the life my mother had: school, marriage, chil... MAJ SJOWALL When I was growing up, I was teased for being too skinny. I went to summer camp when I was 11. I wor... HANI FURSTENBERG Whatever I was doing, even when I was at school, I never repressed anything that I felt. I wasn'... ROBERT SMITH I always wanted to be a dentist from the time I was in high school, and I was accepted to dental sch... MARK SPITZ When I was a teenager, I continued to visit imaginary places by spending all my free time at our loc... MARY POPE OSBORNE From fifth grade on, I worked at our public library. The pay, a pittance, was almost superfluous. Al... JULIA GLASS There is something about being loved and protected by a parent (or guardian) knowing that I can be l... JONATHAN HARNISCH A pause. Then she said: "Tell me, Noah, what do you remember most from the summer we spent together?... NICHOLAS SPARKS As I got into middle school, I was really an outcast. But everybody was an outcast in middle school.... JORDAN GAVARIS I knew from the time I was 6 or 7 that music was something I had to do. Growing up, my parents did e... CRYSTAL BOWERSOX Acting school was summer camp, and I needed concentration camp. I had so many different ideas swirli... AJAY NAIDU It's discouraging. I wish I had a deal put together and I could bring out the 28 car. It was always ... ERNIE IRVAN That rivalry goes through everything, even what student goes to what school. Contrary to public scho... CARL WILLIAMS I came from Long Island, so I had a lot of experience at the stick. I played in junior high school, ... JIM BROWN I was a big shot in high school - big into social events and at the dramatic society - and I always ... DON RICKLES When I was in high school, we were all laboring under the illusion, or maybe it was a reality, that ... JAMES WOODS It was always a dream of mine. When I was in high school I used to write poems for my friends. And t... CYNTHIA VELENO
More Sarah Dessen
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I'm in the grocery store, at the park with my kids, ... SARAH DESSEN I'm always hopeful. I feel like I'm at the prom sitting against the wall waiting for someone... SARAH DESSEN When I was a teen, I was never really into the captain of the football team or the student body pres... SARAH DESSEN It's not always easy being her daughter.' I think,' she said, 'sometimes it's hard no ma... SARAH DESSEN I thought this was a cookout. You know, dogs and burgers, Tater Tots, ambrosia salad" Dexter picked ... SARAH DESSEN Oh, God," I said. "No, it's Dexter," he replied, offering me his hand, which I ignored. He... SARAH DESSEN What the hell," I said, pushing off the wall, ready to take off the head of whatever stupid salesper... SARAH DESSEN But you, fine sir." John Miller clapped Dexter on the shoulder, a bit unsteadily. "You have problems... SARAH DESSEN Plastic ware," he said slowly, "like knives and forks and spoons?" I brushed a bit of dirt off ... SARAH DESSEN Are those the only options? 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And its all right to have a little bit of reg... SARAH DESSEN Well, it's true that I have been hurt in my life. Quite a bit. But it's also true that I have loved,... SARAH DESSEN She knew I could tell with one glance, one look, one simple instant. It was her eyes. Despite the th... SARAH DESSEN I didnt pay atteniton to times or distance, instead focusing on how it felt just to be in motion, kn... SARAH DESSEN Wherever you will go, I will let you down, But this lullaby goes on. SARAH DESSEN I am still the center sister. But I see it differently now. There has to be a middle. Without it, no... SARAH DESSEN Maybe not," she said as we came to the car. "But maybe that isn't so bad. You can't love anyone that... SARAH DESSEN Remy: Did you really believe, that first day, that we were meant to be together? Dexter: ... SARAH DESSEN Love is so unpredictable. That's what makes it so great. SARAH DESSEN Silence is so freaking loud SARAH DESSEN Maybe other writers have perfect first drafts, but I am not one of them. I always try to get the boo... SARAH DESSEN You're not supposed to have it all figured out in high school. If you knew it all, and it was th... SARAH DESSEN I'd still thought that everything I thought about that night-the shame, the fear-would fade in time.... SARAH DESSEN Despite my dad's assurances I was strangely nervous my stomach tight ever since we'd hung up. Maybe ... SARAH DESSEN That was the hard thing about grief, and the grieving. They spoke another language, and the words we... SARAH DESSEN because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. no matter what... SARAH DESSEN I've never envied the person who had to put my books together in one script. SARAH DESSEN Sometimes, you get things right the first time. Others, the second. But the third time, they say, is... SARAH DESSEN He glanced over at me. 'Scared? Of Reggie? What, she thinks he might force her to give up caffeine f... SARAH DESSEN In midair, dangling lost above the world. SARAH DESSEN And so we stood there in the kitchen, my mother and I, facing off over everything that had built up ... SARAH DESSEN And to know me, as you have discovered, is to love me. SARAH DESSEN Sometimes you dont even want to think aout what people are doing with their groceries. SARAH DESSEN Best Friends. And I thought of what she had done all the millions of times I cried to he... SARAH DESSEN Why don't you ever wait a second and see what I'm planning, or thinking, before you burst in with yo... SARAH DESSEN I didn't want to leave things the way we had, unresolved, ... and tried to tell myself he cared abou... SARAH DESSEN It was something I couldn't put my finger on or define clearly, but a whole mishmash of words and in... SARAH DESSEN As far as I was concerned, we'd come to a draw: I hadn't wanted to come, and she didn't want me to l... SARAH DESSEN The language of solace, and comets, and the girls we all become, in the end. SARAH DESSEN This world is an awful/ugly place not to have a best friend. SARAH DESSEN its reall bad SARAH DESSEN Just like that, with one phone call, she was a daughter again. SARAH DESSEN I hoped that Grace would be a little bit of the best of all of us: Scarlett's spirit, and my mother'... SARAH DESSEN If you have just one person believe in you, you'll always find your way SARAH DESSEN You can't just plan a moment when things get back on track, just as you can't plan the moment you lo... SARAH DESSEN And that was it; it was so easy for her. My own memories did not even belong to me. But I knew she w... SARAH DESSEN I knew I had to keep him to myself, as I'd slowly begun to keep everything. We had secrets now, trut... SARAH DESSEN He wasn't what I'd thought he was; maybe he never had been. I wasn't what I'd thought I was, either. SARAH DESSEN When I pictured myself, it was always like just an outline in a coloring book, with the inside not y... SARAH DESSEN Mom." I couldn't believe she was doing this again. She was taking this moment, this time when I was ... SARAH DESSEN I wondered again why the right thing always seemed to be met with so much resistance, when you'd thi... SARAH DESSEN Macon: “It’s true. And if that doesn’t work, use the Jedi Mind Trick. But only if you really h... SARAH DESSEN Don't be a fool. Don't give up something important to hold onto someone who can't even say they love... SARAH DESSEN I've given lots of people chances," she said suddenly, as if Marion was still in the room to hear us... SARAH DESSEN I watched my mother do what she did best, and realized there would never be a way to cut myself from... SARAH DESSEN You can't just turn your heart off like a faucet; you have to go to the source and dry it out, drop ... 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He was there, I could feel his breath, the ground... SARAH DESSEN There was something so heavy about the burden of history, of the past. I wasn't sure I had it in me ... SARAH DESSEN Oh for God's sake,' Heather said, 'I wish you two would just go out, fail miserably as a couple, and... SARAH DESSEN It's a great compliment that people think they're fast reads. It's always funny to me because it tak... SARAH DESSEN Wherever you will go, I will let you down, But this lullaby goes on. SARAH DESSEN I think my mother characters have changed a lot since Sasha was born, just because I understand what... SARAH DESSEN With love like that, you can't get pick about how it finds you or the details. All that matters is t... SARAH DESSEN You want me to give her a key?" the guy asked. "I want you to give her a possibility," she told... SARAH DESSEN What was it like to be so confident even in your failings that you weren't the least bit bothered wh... SARAH DESSEN Look,” he said, “the point is there’s no way to be a hundred percent sure about anyone or anyt... SARAH DESSEN Your mother won a special reward," she told me, "because everyone had a head in her pictures. We all... SARAH DESSEN Rogerson," I asked him sweetly as we sat watching a video in the pool house, "where would I find the... SARAH DESSEN I'd heard of Evergreen Care Center before. Cass and I had always made fun of the stupid ads they ran... SARAH DESSEN Nothing like being scolded by a hippie. SARAH DESSEN After all, it's all kinds of things that make up a life, right? The big, like falling in love and sp... SARAH DESSEN I knew this feeling, the 2 a.m. loneliness that I'd practically invented. SARAH DESSEN Maybe we were all destined to just keep doing the same stupid things, over and over again, never rea... SARAH DESSEN After the group vet appointment--during which Lyle scratched the vet, the vet tech, and some poor wo... SARAH DESSEN It [I'm leaving] wasn't really necessary to say, especially if you were already walking away. Almost... SARAH DESSEN It was so risky and so scary, and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was, it should... SARAH DESSEN When you don't know where you're going, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to have more than you need. SARAH DESSEN That's not a real answer.' Says who?' Says me. I mean real fear, like of failure, of death... SARAH DESSEN It's hard to be nice when the rest of the world is so mean. SARAH DESSEN I want the white one SARAH DESSEN As Isabel acted out her date, both of them laughing, I stayed in the kitchen, out of sight, and pret... SARAH DESSEN Isn't it weird," I said, "the way you remember things, when someone's gone?" What do you mean?"... SARAH DESSEN I can still see Boo sitting there on the floor, cross-legged, holding my Ken and watching my face as... SARAH DESSEN So what's your doll's name?" Boo asked me. "Barbie," I said. "All their names are Barbie." SARAH DESSEN Why should I even bother? What's the point, really?" He thought for a moment. "Who says there h... SARAH DESSEN I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be one of so many, to have not just parents and siblings... SARAH DESSEN If someone is really close with you, your getting upset or them getting upset is okay, and they don�... SARAH DESSEN Restoring order of my personal universe suddenly seemed imperative, as I refolded my T-shirts, stuff... SARAH DESSEN There were so many places in my time with Rogerson that I wished I could go back to, hitting the sto... SARAH DESSEN That's what this has been all about for you, correct? Make it clear. That you and me--it was nothing... SARAH DESSEN And for one second, it was like I could feel the timing clicking together, finally pieces falling in... SARAH DESSEN Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push, so to speak. SARAH DESSEN It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly were y... SARAH DESSEN These were always the weirdest trips for me, when it was midnight or even later, and we pulled up to... SARAH DESSEN You couldn't just pick and choose at will when someone depended on you, or loved you. It wasn't like... SARAH DESSEN Story of my life. SARAH DESSEN instead, we just sat there, together but really apart, watching a show about a stranger and all her ... SARAH DESSEN I understood now. This voice, the one that had been trying to get my attention all this time, callin... SARAH DESSEN I am the middle sister. The one in between. Not oldest, not youngest, not boldest, not nicest. I am ... SARAH DESSEN I'd been convinced I was on the outside, but really, I'd always been within arm's reach. All I had t... SARAH DESSEN Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. it doesn't just catch up: it overtak... SARAH DESSEN Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said. Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though. SARAH DESSEN