The strength you've insisted on assigning to others is actually within yourself.
Just as you began to feel that you could make good use of time, there was no time left to you.
Inspiration never arrived when you were searching for it.
The French would eat anything that couldn't outrun them.
One didn't issue instructions to comets. Grown children did what they had to do, and parents could only grit their teeth and watch and pray for them to get through it.
If this was adulthood the only improvement she could detect in her situation was that she could now eat dessert without eating her vegetables.