“These people were smiling because they were where they wanted to be. They understood that life is too short for what-ifs and complications. Life, they found, can be as simple as reading the wind.”

“As we age we begin to grasp at youthful bliss like a life raft in a sea of harsh reality.”

“If, as has been postulated before, heroism happens when courage meets circumstance, what if the circumstances are mundane?”

“I asked my Greek chorus about this sort of hero: the Underappreciated Personification of Resolve.”

“Perhaps elements like tenacity and humility combine to form a heroic compound.”

“It could be that the hope was in the adventure, the honor in the pursuit, the pride in the doing.”

“There are some people in your life who bring back old memories. And there are others - your first kiss, your first love, your first sex - who, the moment you see them, bring a spark...and something far more potent. They bring back your old life and with that, potential. And possibilities. And the feeling that if you were back in that time, life could be so very different from where you're stuck right now. That's the most tantalizing thing....I want my potential back.”