“My future was mapped in negatives. Next year, I could be anywhere but here.”

“I'd come here planning to leave as soon as I could. It was a pit stop, not a destination. I had my whole life mapped out.""So what happened?""I guess that map didn't turn out to be mine after all,”

“I spread the whole earth out as a map before me. On no one spot of its surface could I put my finger and say, here is safety.”

“I stared at the creased map on my wall, the thin green lineconnecting all the places I had read about. There they were, all thecities of my imaginary future, held together with tape and marker andpins. In six months, a lot had changed. There was no thin green linethat could lead me to my future anymore. Just a girl.”

“Future?" Homer said. He was a little embarrassed because all his life, from day to day, he had been busy mapping out a future, even if it was only a future for the next day. "Well," he said, "I don't know for sure, but I guess I'd like to be somebody some day.”

“I am alone here in my own mind. There is no map and there is no road. It is one of a kind just as yours is.”