Mary Schmich Quotes
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The first gay person I ever met was surely not the first gay person I ever met.
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Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
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Do one thing every day that scares you... Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own... Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
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Getting out of the house is the secret to staying alert through the droning hours leading up to the big meal, even if you don't go farther than 7-Eleven for another six-pack.
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Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
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For some Chicago expats, food is the medicine that blunts the pain of separation.
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Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. The older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
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Do not read beauty magazines. They only make you feel ugly.
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Don't waste time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.
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Alcohol, contrary to instinct, is not the secret to happiness.
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Unusual commencement advice: Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
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Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
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You can map your life through your favorite movies, and no two people's maps will be the same.
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Families are ecosystems. Each life grows in response to the lives around it
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Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
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You can figure out who you were by which movies you loved when
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The movies we love and admire are to some extent a function of who we are when we see them.
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The Hunger Games' isn't for everybody. But neither is 'Anna Karenina.
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Chicago is constantly auditioning for the world, determined that one day, on the streets of Barcelona, in Berlin's cabarets, in the coffee shops of Istanbul, people will know and love us in our multidimensional glory, dream of us the way they dream of San Francisco and New York.
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The Thanksgiving meal should not be treated as a grad school exam or an Olympic dive. Whatever you cook will be good enough - unless you make that Twinkie turkey stuffing we're suddenly hearing too much about.
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Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you'll have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either of them might run out.
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The secret to happiness, at Thanksgiving or any time, is to reframe obligation as opportunity. You don't have to spend Thanksgiving with your family. You get to.
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Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
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Like many women my age, I am 28 years old.
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Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.
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Good art is art that allows you to enter it from a variety of angles and to emerge with a variety of views.
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The soul-sucking activity of TV-watching feels better when it is done with other souls.
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Do one thing every day that scares you. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
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Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.
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In twenty years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
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