I guess that’s the thing about a hero’s journey. You might not start out a hero, and you might not even come back that way. But you change, which is the same as everything changing. The journey changes you, whether or not you know it, and whether or not you want it to.

At least no one's trying to kill anyone. Give them about fifteen minutes

Was it really so far-fetched to think that words had a way of shaping a person's whole life?

Was it worth it? Feeling better for a minute or two, knowing that the cold would still be out there waiting?

I suppose I am a snob. I loathe towns. I loathe townspeople. They have small minds and giant backsides. Which is to say, what they lack in interiors they make up in posteriors.

I stared at the creased map on my wall, the thin green line connecting all the places I had read about. There they were, all the cities of my imaginary future, held together with tape and marker and pins. In six months, a lot had changed. There was no thin green line that could lead me to my future anymore. Just a girl.

Stupid to the power of stupid.