There's no point in denying it anymore: The end of the semester is here. An onslaught of papers, projects and exams will no doubt be keeping you busy the next couple of weeks. Here's a list of inspirational sayings that will out-do the quotes from your high school homeroom teacher's collection of motivational posters ("There's no 'I' in team!") and bring a little balance to your sleep-deprived existence.
1. "And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good." —John Steinbeck
2. "Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear." —George Addair
3. "Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs." —Farrah Gray
4. "For the real question is whether the brighter future is really always so distant. What if, on the contrary, it has been here for a long time already, and only our own blindness and weakness has prevented us from seeing it around us and within us, and kept us from developing it?" —Václav Havel
5. "And then the day came, / when the risk / to remain tight / in a bud / was more painful / than the risk / it took / to Blossom." —Anaïs Nin
6. "Let the wind pass / and not take me away." —Pablo Neruda
7. “Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you'll put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you'll hold on really hard and realize there is no choice but to let go. Acceptance is a small, quiet room.” —Cheryl Strayed
8. "Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other." —John Steinbeck
9. "I realize that I only have words and that, from time to time, as I hold them in my arms I am less lonely." —Slavenka Drakulic
10. "The best you’ll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way." —Janet Fitch
11. "I am half agony, half hope." —Jane Austen
12. "Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper." —Arthur Golden
13. "I stood on the edge of a peak, looking out at a horizon of broken promises and distant dreams, trying to catch my breath." —Anonymous
14. “Don't surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn't true anymore.” —Cheryl Strayed
15. "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." —Edmund Hillary
16. "I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." —Leonardo da Vinci
17. "Happiness. It comes on / unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really, / any early morning talk about it." —Raymond Carver
18. "What keeps you going isn’t some fine destination but just the road you’re on, and the fact that you know how to drive." —Barbara Kingsolver
19. "Get busy living, or get busy dying." —Stephen King
20. "Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story." —Cheryl Strayed
Hang in there, ASU. We've got this.
Related links:
Finals week prep: 6 study spots near Tempe campus
10 facts about ASU you may not know
Reach the columnist at maarmst7@asu.edu or follow @MiaAArmstrong on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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