It’s been more than a year since I last wrote a post like this. I don’t even know why I stopped in the first place. But earlier today, I was ten foot deep in thought about where my life’s heading and I flipped through my notebook where I write down all my favorite quotes. This book’s entry tickled my heart.
Me Before You tells the story of Lou, a 26-year-old woman who has never really done anything spectacular in her life, and Will, a man who squeezed every adventure out of his life until an accident turned him into a depressed quadriplegic. Lou is hired to be Will’s caregiver and everyday companion when she loses her job at a cafe. At first, they butt heads. Gradually though, they find comfort and possibilities in their differences. And, in doing so, they open themselves up to a whole new world where hurt and healing are one and the same.
Even though I read this almost a year ago, I remember thinking to myself then, I’m Lou… minus the love interest. And earlier as I read the words I wrote down from this book, I can’t help but think, I’m still Lou… minus the love interest.
His eyes met mine. They were infinitely weary.
They looked like they were really happy together. Then again, what did a photograph prove?
The thing about being catapulted into a while new life… is that it forces you to rethink your idea of who you are. Or how you might seem to other people.
There are things you don’t notice until you accompany someone with a wheelchair.
Here, I could hear my thoughts. I could almost hear my heartbeat. I realized, to my surprise, that I quite liked it.
There are normal hours, and then there are invalid hours, where time stalls and slips, where life – real life – seems to exist at one remove.
“No. Stay for a bit. Talk to me.” He swallowed. His eyes opened again and his gaze slid up to mine. He looked unbearably tired. “Tell me something good.”
“This might sound revolting to you, but astonishingly, Will Traynor, not all girls get dressed just to please men.”
Girls like Lissa trade on their looks for so long they don’t think they have anything else.
It could be oddly dispiriting, the blank refusal of humankind to even attempt to function responsibly.
I needed to tell him, silently, that things might change, grow or fail, but that life did go on. That we were all part of some great cycle, some pattern that it was only God’s purpose to understand.
I felt the music like a physical thing; it didn’t just sit in my ears, it flowed through me, around me, made my sense vibrate.
You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.
“And I cannot for the life of me see how you can be content to live this tiny life. This life that will take place almost entirely within a five-mile radius and contain nobody who will ever surprise you or push you or show you things that will leave your head spinning and unable to sleep at night.”
Some mistakes just have greater consequences than others.
There is nothing more terrifying that my sister’s thinking face when it is trained directly on you.
And finally, possibly the most eyeopening of them all…
Knowing you still have possibilities is a luxury.
Reading these lines in the emotional state I’m currently in, I honestly don’t know what to feel, kind of like how I didn’t know what to feel after I finished reading the book. No, I am not content to live a tiny life, and yes, I know that as long as I’m alive and breathing, there are possibilities. My heart and brain can process that. They just don’t know how to apply that in real life.
Maybe if I read the sequel to the book, I’ll find the answer there. I doubt it though. Answers like that you can’t find anywhere else but yourself.
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