“There are a lot of memories we imagine. We play them over and over in our minds, trying to orchestrate our movements and words to perfection. Or maybe it's just that I've lived inside of my head more than any other person in the history of the world. Maybe none of us can really predict how we will act at any give moment. Maybe we're all at the mercy of circumstance in spite of our well-laid plans.”

“These memories descend out of nowhere, giving me pieces of who I was, but their significance is lost. I sigh and resume my walk, not knowing if this memory is important, or just more of the jumbled trivia of Jenna's life, like sock shopping. Maybe that is all any life is composed of, trivia that eventually adds up to a person, and maybe I just don't have enough of it yet to be a whole one.”

“Maybe the impossible is possible when you take everything else away.When nothings left, maybe you can reach for something that no one knew existed.Or maybe we became something new. Maybe we made it exist.”

“Do certain events in our lives leave a permanent mark, freezing a piece of us in time, and that becomes a touchstone that we measure the rest of our lives against?”

“I almost could.I could almost leave and never look back.Like Mr. Bender, I could leave everything I was behind, including my name.Leave because of Allysand all the things she says I am.Leave because of all the things I am afraid that I will never be again.Leave, because maybe I’m not enough.Leave because of Allys, Senator Harris, and half the world knows better than Father and Mother and maybe Ethan, too.Leave.Because the old Jenna was so absorbed in her own needs that she said yes when she knows she should have said no,and the shame of nightcould be hidden in a new place behind a new name.But friends are complicated.There is the staying.Staying because of Kara and Locke and all that they will never be except trapped.Staying because for them, time is running out and I am their their last chance.Staying for the old Jenna and all she owes Kara and Locke and maybe all the new Jenna owes them, too.Staying because of ten percent and all I hope I might be.Staying because of Mr. Bender’s erased life and regrets.Staying for connection.Staying because two meis enough to make one of meworth nothing at all.And staying because maybe Lily does love the new Jennaas much as the old one, after all.Because maybe, given time, people do change,maybe laws change.Maybe we all change.”

“Are the details of our lives who we are, or is it owning those details that makes the difference?”

“The world before us is a postcard, and I imagine the story we are writing on it.”