They couldnโt have known that even this was a lieโthat we never really choose, not entirely. We are always being pushed and squeezed down one road or another. We have no choice but to step forward, and then step forward again, and then step forward again; suddenly we find ourselves on a road we havenโt chosen at all. But maybe happiness isnโt in the choosing. Maybe itโs in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along.
Lauren OliverThatโs just the kind of thing that kids do to each other. Itโs no big deal. Thereโs always going to be a person laughing and somebody getting laughed at. It happens every day, in every school, in every town in Americaโprobably in the world, for all I know. The whole point of growing up is learning to stay on the laughing side.
Lauren Oliver