When I was in college, I remember fearing that the dreary grind of adulthood would feature infinitely more existential dread than frat parties had, but the opposite has been true for me. I'm much less likely to feel that gnawing fear of aimlessness and nihilism than I used to be and that's partly because education gave me job opportunities, but it's mostly because education gave me perspective and context.

And I put the latte down on a table, awash in the happy middle of my greatest adventure.

It is not my fault that my parents own the world's largest collection of black Santas.

You can't just make yourself matter and then die, Alaska, because now I am irretrievably different.

I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up," he said. "And it is my privilege and my responsibility to ride all the way up with you," I said.

I didn't want to look at them, so I looked away, and to look away was to look at Augustus.

That's what I realized: if I did get her back somehow, she wouldn't fill the hole that losing her created.