*Did you ever wonder what it would be like if you weren't you anymore? If you were suddenly gone... how would your world react? Whatever you imagined is wrong. There's nothing romantic about death. Grief is like an ocean - it's deep and dark and bigger than all of us, and pain is a theif in the night - quiet, persistent, unfair. Diminished by time and faith and love.* -- Haley
*Sometimes when you're young you think nothing can hurt you. It's like being invincible. your whole life is ahead of you and you have big plans... BIG plans. To find your perfect match - the one that completes you. But as you get older, you realize it's not always that easy. It's not until the end of your life that you realize how the plans you made were simply plans. At the end, when you're looking back instead of forward, you want to believe that you made the most of what life gave you. You want to believe that you're leaving something good behind. You want it all to have mattered.* -- Lucas
*Make a wish and place it in your heart. Anything you want... everything you want. Do you have it? Good. Now believe it can come true. You never know where the next miracle is gonna come from. The next smile, the next wish come true. But if you believe that it's right around the corner, and you open your heart and mind to the possibility of it, to the certainty of it - you just might get the thing you're wishing for. The world is full of magic, you just have to believe in it. So make your wish... do you have it? Good. Now believe in it with all your heart.* -- Peyton, Lucas, Brooke, Nathan and Haley
*Do you ever wonder how long it takes to change your life? What measure of time is enough to be life altering? Is it four years like high school? One year? An eight week rock tour? Can your life change in a month, or a week, or a single day? We're always in a hurry to grow up, to go places, to get ahead. And when you're young, one hour can change everything.* -- Lucas
*Regret comes in all shapes and sizes. Some are small - like when we do a bad thing for a good reason. Some are bigger - like when you let down a friend. Some of us escape the pain of regret by making the right choice. Some of us have little time for regret because we're looking forward to the future. Sometimes we have to fight to come to terms with the past, and sometimes we bury our regret by promising to change our own ways. But - our biggest regrets are not for the things we did, but for the things we didn't do. Things we didn't say that could've saved someone that we care about. Especially when we can see the dark storm that's headed their way.* -- Lucas
*There comes a time when every life goes off course. In this desperate moment, you must choose your direction. Will you fight to stay on path? Will others tell you who you are, or will you label yourself? Will you be haunted by your choice or will you embrace your new path? Each morning you choose to move forward or simply give up. There comes a time when every life goes off course. In this desperate moment who will you be? Will you let down your defenses and find solace in someone unexpected? Will you reach out? Will you face your greatest fear bravely and move forward with faith? Or, will you succumb to the darkness in your soul?* -- Lucas
*You ever look at a picture of yourself and see a stranger in the background? It makes you wonder; how many strangers have pictures of you? How many moments of other people's lives have we been in? Were we a part of someone's life when their dreams came true... or were we there when their dreams died? Did we keep trying to get in, as if we were somehow destined to be there, or did the shot take us by surprise? Just think... you could be a big part of someone else's life and not even know it.* -- Lucas
*You know it's been said that we just don't recognize the significant moments of our lives while they're happening. We grow complacent with ideas, or things, or people and we take them for granted, and it's usually not until that thing is about to be taken away from you that you've realized how much you need it - how much you loved it.* -- Nathan
*You ever heard the expression, "The best things in life are free?" Well that expression is true. Every once in a while, people step up, they rise above themselves. Sometimes they surprise you and sometimes they fall short. Life is funny sometimes. It can push pretty hard, but if you look close enough, you can find hope in the words of children, in the bars of the song and in the eyes of someone you love. And, if you're lucky... if you're the luckiest person on this entire planet... the person you love decides to love you back.* -- Nathan
*Does this darkness have a name? This cruelty, this hatred. How did it find us? Did it steal into our lives or did we seek it out and embrace it? What happened to us that we now send our children into the world like we send young men into war - hoping for their safe return but knowing that some will be lost along the way? When did we lose our way... consumed by the shadows, swallowed whole by the darkness?* -- Lucas
*Losing your way on a journey is unfortunate... but losing your reason FOR the journey is a fate more cruel.* -- Lucas
*Sometimes it's easy to feel like you're the only one in the world who's struggling... who's frustrated or unsatisfied or barely getting by. But that feeling is a lie, and if you hold on... just find the courage to face it all for another day... someone or something will find the way and make it all okay. Because we all need a little help sometimes - someone to help us hear the music in the world. To remind us that it won't always be this way. That someone is out there... and that someone will find you.* -- Lucas
*Sometimes I wonder if anything's absolute anymore. Is there still right and wrong? Good and bad? Truth and lies? Or is everything negotiable... left to interpretation... gray? Sometimes we're forced to bend the truth, transform it, cause we're faced with things that are not of our own making. And sometimes things simply catch up to us.* -- Lucas
*Truth is absolute. Believe that. Even when the truth is hard and cold, and more painful than you've ever imagined. And even when the truth is more cruel than any lie.* -- Lucas
*Every song has a CODA - a final movement. Whether it fades out or crashes away, every song ends. Is that any reason not to enjoy the music? The truth is, there is nothing to be afraid of... it's just life.* -- Ellie
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