An excerpt from Incredibly Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

What We Leave Behind

Youve felt it. So have I. I cant quite explain when it happens, but with college getting closer, Im more conscious when it happens. Much as weve wanted to grow up, move on, move out, were saying goodbye to something we thought wed never miss: being kids.

I felt it a year ago when I was driving by a county fair and stopped to watch the kids on a merry-go-round, the calliope playing The Sidewalks of New York as the painted ponies rose and fell on their shiny poles.

I used to love that ride. I loved the summer my dad decided I was big enough to go on all by myself, but everytime my horse got around to the gate, there hed be, smiling, and Id feel brave enough to let go with one hand and wave back. And though big people do ride the merry-go-round sometimes, even teens, it will ever be the same as it was then my dad waiting for me at the gate, smiling.

I remember promising myself, when I was nine, that I would never stop doing the two things I enjoyed most: reading the comics and hanging upside down by my knees on the jungle gym. Ive already stopped hanging by my knees.

The shoes I once loved, my favorite books, reading the newspaper over Sunday brunch with my parents thatll all be left behind when September comes; and along with the excitement of living on my own, theres an emptiness deep inside me. And I wonder what would take its place

Saying hello to something new means saying goodbye to something old and loved. Much as we seniors are looking forward to college or work, to moving out and moving on, we have a little grieving to do, and it takes us by surprise. Were leaving a part of ourselves behind. And its okay to feel sad along with happy, loss along with pain, regret along with excitement. Its part of the process. Expected, in fact.

She said, Im so afraid. And I said, Why? and she said, because Im so profoundly happy, Dr Rasul. Happiness like this is frightening. I asked her why and she said, They only let you be this happy if theyre preparing to take something from you.-Sofia Akrami, The Kite Runner

The best part of community service is when it transforms into friendship

When a baby comes into the world, its hands are clenched right? Why?After a pregnant pause, the Reb continues.Because a baby, not knowing any better, wants to grab everything to say, the whole world is mine. But when an old person dies, how does he do so? With his hands open. Why? Because he has learned the lesson. We can take nothing with us. Mitch Albom; Have A Little Faith

With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,And purple-stained mouthOde to a Nightingale, John Keats

Theres always going to be bad stuff out there. But heres the amazing thing light trumps darkness, everytime. You stick a candle into the dark, but you cant stick the dark into the light.-Jodi Picoult, Change of Heart

It was a little like a scar on a polished wooden tableyoud try to see the rest of the gleaming surface, but your eyes and your fingers would be drawn to the pitted part, the one thing that kept it from being perfect.Jodi Picoult

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.Pablo Picasso

The Grass is Greener where you water it

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day? (Sonnet XVIII) William ShakespeareShall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Perspective was a luxury when your head was constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons