Then a few months ago I found myself talking to the tree. An entire conversation, just me and a tree. And on the climb down I felt like crying. Why didn’t I have someone real to talk to? Why didn’t I have a best friend like everyone else seemed to? Sure, there were kids I knew at school, but none of them were close friends. They’d have no interest in climbing the tree. In smelling the sunshine.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Wendelin Van Draanen Quotes

Girls don’t fight fair. They pull your hair and gauge you and pinch you; then they run off gasping to mommy when you try and defend yourself with a fist. Then you get locked into time out, and for what? No, my friend, the secret is, don’t snap at the bait. Let it dangle. Swim around it. Laugh it off. After a while they’ve given up and try to lure someone else.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

That’s the funny thing about running. The deceptive thing about it. It may seem mindless, but its really mental. If the minds strong, the body acts weak, even if its not.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Then a few months ago I found myself talking to the tree. An entire conversation, just me and a tree. And on the climb down I felt like crying. Why didn’t I have someone real to talk to? Why didn’t I have a best friend like everyone else seemed to? Sure, there were kids I knew at school, but none of them were close friends. They’d have no interest in climbing the tree. In smelling the sunshine.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Repetition. Effort. Pain. Success. There really is no shortcut.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

It was nice, though, riding with my father. It was like the silence connected us in a way that explanations never could.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Which I guess is better than her playing her usual role in How I Ruined My Daughter’s Life.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

My life is over. Behind.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

The finish line comes into view and you will yourself toward it, but the wind pushes you back, and your body begs you to give up, and the whole world seems to grind into slow motion. Your determination is all that’s left. It forces your muscles to fire. Forces you to stay in the race. Forces you to survive the pain of this moment.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

It’s to have people see her instead of her condition. That’s all that anybody with a disability wants. Don’t sum up the person based on what you see, or what you don’t understand; get to know them.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life. Do the right thing.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

I hate t see you swim out so far you can’t swim back.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

One by one by one by one. That’s how I got through losing a leg. Minute by minute by minute by minute. Hour by hour by hour by hour. Day by day by day by day. That’s how anybody makes it through anything.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Man, talk about having a skeleton in the closet – this.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

You don’t have to be an immediate expert at everything, Juli. The idea here is to learn something new.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

The first day I met Bryce Loski, I flipped. Honestly, one look at him and I became a lunatic. It’s his eyes. Something in his eyes. They’re blue, and framed in the blackness of his lashes, they’re dazzling. Absolutely breathtaking.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

This is the kind of silence that connects us in a way that words never could.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Today I’ve been considering how life’s journey is not about the distance we move our feet, but how we are moved in our heart.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

I’ve never thought about Who I want to be. The question has always been What do you want to be?

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Anger is a dry riverbed. You should follow it only if it leads you to the springs of forgiveness.

— Wendelin Van Draanen

Conquering the wild is nothing compared to fixing the cracks in your heart.

— Wendelin Van Draanen
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