I stand in this parking lot, realizing that Iโve never been this far from home, and here is this girl I love and cannot follow. I hope this is the heroโs errand, because not following her is the hardest thing Iโve ever done.
John GreenThere was quite a lot of competitiveness about it, with everybody wanting to beat not only cancer itself, but also the other people in the room. Like, I realize that this is irrational, but when they tell you that you have, say, a 20 percent chance of living five years, the math kicks in and you figure thatโs one in five . . . so you look around and think, as any healthy person would: I gotta outlast four of these bastards.
John GreenThat was part of her, and you used to know it. It's like now you only care about the Alaska you made up.
John GreenโI thought we were in a church basement, but we are literally in the heart of Jesus.โ โSomeone should tell Jesus,โ I said. โI mean, it's gotta be dangerous, storing children with cancer in your heart.โ โI would tell Him myself.โ Augustus said, โbut unfortunately I am literally stuck inside of His heart, so He won't be able to hear me.โ
John GreenBecause everybody who has ever lost their way in life has felt the nagging insistence of that question. At some point we all look up and realize we are lost in a maze, and I dont want us to forget Alaska, and I don't want to forget that even when the material we study seems boring, we're trying to und3erstand how people answered that question and the question each of you posed in your papers--how different traditions have come to terms with what Chip, in his final, called 'people's rotten lots in life.
John Green