#young_adult

I imagined the lies the valedictorian was telling them right now. About the exciting future that lies ahead. I wish she'd tell them the truth: Half of you have gone as far in life as you're ever going to. Look around. It's all downhill from here. The rest of us will go a bit further, a steady job, a trip to Hawaii, or a move to Phoenix, Arizona, but out of fifteen hundred how many will do anything truly worthwhile, write a play, paint a painting that will hang in a gallery, find a cure for herpes? Two of us, maybe three? And how many will find true love? About the same. And enlightenment? Maybe one. The rest of us will make compromises, find excuses, someone or something to blame, and hold that over our hearts like a pendant on a chain. ↗

— Janet Fitch

#graduation #growth #insight #maturity #teenager

I knew nothing of death, and, for some unexplainable reason, I was beginning to feel guilty for that. -Jessica ↗

— Shannon A. Thompson

#fiction #guilt #minutes-before-sunset #paranormal #romance

My heart, always so strong in the past, was like the fishnet stockings that clung to my legs—torn, shredded, and full of gaping holes. ↗

— E.J. Stevens

#paranormal #spirit-guide-series #teen #ya #young-adult

Neither of us asked to be born descendants, yet I’d be rewarded with his death, and we couldn’t prevent that. No one could. (Eric) ↗

— Shannon A. Thompson

#choice #death #destiny #fate #fiction

...what good would it do to shutter your windows, never dream of rainbows or find hope in promises? Why choose to walk away rather than hold your ground and fight for love? ↗

— Ellen Hopkins

#verse #young-adult #dreams

He would reach for me in the middle of the night, nearly every single night, wrapping one of those solid arms around my waist and pulling me in close. So. Close. ↗

— Chelsie Shakespeare

#desire #dreams #love #meant-to-be #past-lives

A true leader is not meant to be greeted with unanimous praise by his people. A leader is meant to be questioned, to be suspect, to be hated. If he is not, then one can easily assume that either he has not challenged his abilities as a leader by making a decision that creates a split between the people, or he is forcing his subjects to bow before him. ↗

— Evan Meekins

#fantasy #fantasy-fiction #fiction #leadership #praise

The thirst we shared for one another made it clear that the distraction would only come from deprivation. Charlotte was always on my mind. In my dreams, her name balancing fatally on my lips at all times, the scent of her drove me on through my everyday tasks. It was in denying myself of her soft skin and intoxicating presence that I truly began to lose touch. ↗

— Shawn Kirsten Maravel

#volition #young-adult-series #dreams

We connect through our dreams. Like we could be a thousand miles apart and I'd still know you were there. ↗

— Pete Hautman

#dreams #love #young-adult #dreams

The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has — I'm not kidding. ↗

— J.D. Salinger

#school #young-adult #education