You’re always a kid around your parents… Unless they’re acting like children. Then you don’t get the chance.

You know the minute you stop thinking about it, it'll happen.

So much had happened that morning. Yet it was this image, this moment, that i kept going back to hours later, after we'd made it safely to the walkway and gone our separate ways to classes. How it felt to have the world moving beneath me, a hand gripping mine, knowing if i fell, at least i wouldn't do it alone.

Some writers pick a topic and write around that, but I like to include it all.

She smiled, pulling the photo a little closer, and I wondered if I should ask her, too, the question for my project, get her definition. But as she ran a finger slowly across the faces, identifying each one, it occurred to me that maybe this was her answer. All those names, strung together like beads on a chain. Coming together, splitting apart, but still and always, a family. (page 289) ~Ruby

Life has a way of disregarding even your best intentions.

He always did the leaving. But not this time. She kept walking, and did not look back.