“Not all those who wander are lost.” J.R.R. Tolkien
It’s a great quote. It makes us want to pitch a tent and use our maps to kindle a roaring campfire. It makes us want to explore without reservations. Of course, we don’t have physical paper maps (we’re not even confident we could read one). And we’re not going to symbolically burn our iPhones, either.
As Collegiettes, we’re all wanderers living away from home. But as fantastic as J.R.R. Tolkien’s words of wisdom are, we can’t help but cringe at their overuse. The following 10 quotes are for all the college students who’ve left home and are in need some slightly-less-cliche (I’m sorry, Bilbo Baggins) literary inspiration.
1. “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett
2. “Relax. You will become an adult. You will figure out your career. You will find someone who loves you. You have a whole lifetime; Time takes time.” Johanna de Silentio
3. “I remember when I was younger and I wanted to be beautiful. Now I’m older and I want to be intelligent. I want to burn hearts with brilliance and engulf souls with compassion. I want to be loved for my thoughts and nothing else.” Unknown
4. “Here’s the thing: Life is now. It’s not ten pounds from now, it’s not twenty pounds from now, it’s not a million dollars from now. It’s right now. And you just have to take a chance.” Jillian Michaels
5. “You have to be the kind of person who can make the best out of a Tuesday. You know those people who live for the weekends? They’re wishing their life away. You have to find something worth living for or else you’ll look back and realize you’ve wasted your life away.” Drew Marvin
6. “I want to get more comfortable being uncomfortable. I want to get more confident being uncertain. I don’t want to shrink back just because something isn’t easy. I want to push back, and make more room in the area between I can’t and I can.” Kristin Armstrong
7. “If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It is lethal.” Paul Coelho
8. “People say I love you all the time – when they say, ‘take an umbrella, it’s raining,’ or ‘hurry back,’ or even ‘watch out, you’ll break your neck.’ There are hundreds of ways of wording it – you just have to listen for it.” John Patrick
9. “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.” Steve Furtick
10. “Instead of saying ‘I don’t have time’ try saying ‘It’s not a priority,’ and see how that feels. Often, that’s a perfectly adequate explanation. I have time to iron my sheets, I just don’t want to. But other things are harder. Try it: ‘I’m not going to edit your resume, sweetie, because it’s not a priority.’ ‘I don’t go to the doctor because my health is not a priority.’ If these phrases don’t sit well, that’s the point. Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice. If we don’t like how we’re spending an hour, we can choose differently.” Laura Vanderkam in the Wall Street Journal
Whether it’s the stress of adult-ing, the insecurities, the time management nightmares, or the figuring out of what #goals means to each of us, these quotes resonate with every Collegiette at some point in her college career. And the cliches aren’t too bad, either.