A Most Important Year Quotes

“I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on the sun’s warmth. It was a good day. There were many things to think about, but in this moment, I wanted to embrace my surroundings and enjoy them. Sometimes the little things were the best parts of life, and they were always there in front of us, waiting to be noticed.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“Sometimes my thoughts were hard to digest. Sometimes my brain would get stuck on a concept that troubled me and would create endless rabbit holes in my head. It seemed like the more I tried to find an answer, the more complicated it would become. And sometimes unsettling images would randomly flash into my head. I didn’t want to describe what they were. I knew the images weren’t true, but they often made me feel uneasy.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“All I can say is that I felt alive and didn’t want to think about anything else besides this moment.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“I found it strange how people could sit in an airplane flying miles high at hundreds of speeds and not think about it. We got used to magnificent things. I wanted to think it’s cool every time I fly. I wouldn’t want to act overdramatic but just sit there and look out the window for a moment and process what I’m doing. Really process it. Maybe before turning on a movie or going back to normal life, I would begin the flight with a moment like that.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“I realized that you could appreciate something without wanting it back. Everything had its own purpose and time.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“It didn’t make sense how someone I used to be so close with could suddenly pretend that I didn’t exist.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“I figured that distance happens and connections fade, and I wouldn’t want anyone to feel obligated to stay friends with me. That wasn’t fair to ask. It just seemed to happen a lot with me.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“What do you do when neither person is wrong yet they completely disagree?”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“But he’s still my best friend, and I’ve known him for years. I’m not going to just give up on him.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“Even in difficult times, there could be good moments.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“The fact that we have to decide what to do for the rest of our lives at seventeen is crazy. How are we supposed to know?”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“There was something about nighttime that made time feel slow and our thoughts feel large. Daytime was a beauty to the eyes, and nighttime was a beauty to the soul. I decided that they were equally beautiful in different ways and couldn’t be compared.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“We listened to ‘Midnight City’ by M83 while driving under the city’s neon lights. No one spoke. We all just sat silent, breathing in the night. Nick tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, Maya swayed her head back and forth to the instrumental riffs, and I gazed up at the twinkling city around us. I wish I could describe exactly how I felt, but I can’t wrap my feelings into words. All I can say is that I felt alive and didn’t want to think about anything else besides this moment.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“They say youth is easier than adulthood, but I say all parts of life can be hard.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“I felt that someone who was different from another didn’t make them weird. If anything, it would be weird if all people were the same, and frankly, boring. I didn’t think people had to force connections with everyone, but they surely didn’t have to judge each other either.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“When I got out of the car, I told her, ‘Thanks. Thanks for everything. You’re a good friend.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“I was so tired of being at hospitals. It felt like a
curse that people close to me kept ending up here.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“Whenever my mother was worried, she would
whisper her prayers in Spanish. I think it gave her a sense of privacy but also a sense of power.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“Things felt a little different and that was OK.
Life would never stay in one place, after all. I was just glad to have my friends.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“Remember that helping others doesn’t mean denying to help yourself.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“Strength doesn’t have to mean putting your problems aside or staying silent. Strength is sometimes being brave enough to seek the help that you need.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“Sometimes we connect with people and sometimes we don’t, but caring what other people think shouldn’t matter.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“I remember my pastor once said that peace in God doesn’t omit emotion; Jesus was perfect and still cried and felt anger. So peace was, that in the midst of our trials and emotions, our heads could remain above the water without drowning in it. This kind of peace could help us continue to live on through our struggles.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“Then the five of us talked about junior year and how we felt this looming pressure toward taking the SATs. Afterwards, we somehow got on the topic of artificial intelligence and whether society would become like The Terminator films. You know, typical conversation. It was enjoyable.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“…remember that helping others doesn’t mean denying to help yourself.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“The truth was, we all should try our best in life, but sometimes our best wouldn’t match the best of others. Sometimes our best wouldn’t match the standard. Sometimes our best wouldn’t match perfection. And that was OK.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“I thought it was good to be nice all the time, even when people weren’t looking. And I didn’t think that being bullied was an excuse to be a bully in return.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“I loved music. What struck me most about a song wasn’t the lyrics or genre but simply the way it sounded. It’s like when you hear that right song, no matter where you are or what you are doing, the way it sounds just stirs something inside of you. Maybe it’s the melody, the instruments, or the singer’s voice, but for that short moment you forget everything else on your mind and just feel.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“In the back of my head I knew that life didn’t work that way, in phases of good and bad, and that good and bad usually occurred at the same time.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year

“…strength doesn’t have to mean putting your problems aside or staying silent. Strength is sometimes being brave enough to seek the help that you need.”
― J. Aleong, A Most Important Year