It's not always easy being her daughter.' I think,' she said, 'sometimes it's hard no matter whose daughter you are.

Because you have to just go with the flow. Your life is not your own, with people coming in and out all the time. You get mellow because you have to.

I wasn't very happy in high school: it was a confusing and sort of sad time for me.

I was running from one problem or place to another, with no time left to study, or sleep, or just breathe. I felt pulled in all directions, fighting to keep all these obligations circling in the air above me. It was only a matter of time before something fell.

The first boy was always the hardest.

But it was too early to know: there were always more pages to go, more words to be written, before the story was over.

I wasn’t ready to think about the other yet: that it wasn’t that I wasn’t right for Macon, but that maybe he wasn’t right for me. There was a difference. Even for someone who things didn’t come easy for, someone like me.