Quotes About Independence

How strange and glorious it was to be anchored to nothing, to be free, in some particular way, for the first time in my life.

I have carried the weight of my student loan debt for about half of my life now, but I have not been "defined by my 'student loan' identity." I do not even know what a student loan identity is. Do you? What is a student loan identity?

Nobody's going to do your life for you. You have to do it yourself, whether you're rich or poor, out of money or raking it in, the beneficiary of ridiculous fortune or terrible injustice.

I had to do something hard so I could know my strength. I had to do something scary so I could find my courage. I had to do something alone so I could see who I was.

So many torturous things in this life. Don't let a man who doesn't love you be one of them.

There was no mother at our college graduations. There was no mother at our weddings. There was no mother when we sold our first books. There was no mother when our children were born. There was no mother, ever, at any turn for either one of us in our entire adult lives and there never will be. The same is true for

Yes. There is something I can offer that will help. I can tell you to get yourself out of that house. You mustn't live with people who wish to annihilate you. Even if you love them.

You don't need a reason to leave.

You've earned the right to grow. You're going to have to carry the water yourself.

But now I could see the line between this and that—between a childhood in which I saw my mother and stepfather forging ahead over and over again with two pennies in their pocket and my own general sense that I could do it too. Before I left, I hadn't calculated how much my journey would reasonably be expected to cost and saved up that amount plus enough to be my cushion against unexpected expenses. If I'd done that, I wouldn't have been here, eighty-some days out

on the PCT, broke, but okay—getting to do what I wanted to do even though a reasonable person would have said I couldn't afford to do it.

Love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe.

Nobody's going to do your life for you. You have to do it yourself, whether you're rich or poor, out of money or raking it in, the beneficiary of ridiculous fortune or terrible injustice. And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard. No matter what unjust, sad, sucky things have befallen you.

Quizá sí estaba más sola que nadie en el mundo. Quizás eso no estaba mal.

That we must help ourselves. That after destiny has delivered what it delivers, we are responsible for our lives.

You are not a terrible person for wanting to break up with someone you love. You don't need a reason to leave. Wanting to leave is enough.

Don't let a man who doesn't love you be one of them.

No is golden. No is the kind of power the good witch wields.

we must help ourselves. That after destiny has delivered what it delivers, we are responsible for our lives. We can choose to fling our kids into the grass or we can take deep breaths and walk up and down the hall.

My two grown sons, ages thirty-five and twenty-three, have returned to the nest, my home. They didn't ask. They simply showed up.

Doing what one wants to do because one wants to do it is hard for a lot of people, but I think it's particularly hard for women. We are, after all, the gender onto which a giant Here to Serve button has been eternally pinned.

I've had four amazing men in my life, very strong, powerful, wonderful men. I certainly will have a relationship with someone but I don't think I will get married again.

There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity.

Leroy was sixteen and the oldest so he thought he was too good to drive. Let baby boys do that, he'd say.