Best Before I Go Quotes by Colleen Oakley

"Who gets cancer twice before they turn thirty?"

"I'm in the second semester of my master's degree program in community counseling and I have chosen, researched, and then discarded roughly six different themes for my dissertation."

"That’s how I knew I was in trouble. Because when you don’t like someone, you just think, 'He’s got some crooked teeth.'"

"I like the still of the morning. I’m alone in the house but revel in the reminders that I’m not alone in the world."

"I’m so, so sorry. Unfortunately this happens sometimes. A patient goes from six-month checkups to annuals and the cancer sneaks in."

"I think the word unbelievable is overused. People say 'That's unbelievable!' for things that really aren't."

"Babies are actually switched in the hospital at birth sometimes."

"For every action, there's an equal, opposite reaction."

"I’m going to live. Which means she’s going to die."

"I don’t think so,' he said, nodding at my bald head. 'Aren’t you the strongman?'"

"I’ll call Dr. Saunders in the morning. He’ll fumble for words."

"But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two!"

"It’s not like you’re jetting off across the country. You’ll still be here."

"You can’t just sit around the house. What about school?"

"We can’t afford to have the whole house crumble down on you while you’re sleeping."

"You have Lots of Cancer: Here’s What to Do Now."

"It’s like asking your boss for a five-thousand-dollar raise and he nods and says, 'I can give you ten cents.'"

"I’ve never really been good at finding my Zen."

"I don’t do reading assignments, I haven’t written any papers."

"I wish I could reach up and grab the words with my fist and stuff them back in."

"Now all I can think is: how naively ambitious of me."

"I try to tamp down my irritation. Now you want to be romantic?"

"I’m exhausted from the vast range of conflicting emotions I’ve experienced in the past ten seconds."

"A man looking a little too pleased at the prospect discusses the possibility of a colossal black hole swallowing our entire solar system."

"What can one possibly glean about someone from a single snapshot?"

"After Dad died, she worked two jobs to stifle the endless flow of bills in our mailbox."

"I felt safest right by her side, so after school I would wait at home in our den, watching my taped cartoons until moonlight shone through the windows."

"It was life, and I thought it was normal until the day I realized it wasn’t."

"I’m not sure what his type is. I know I need someone responsible and organized like me, and driven like him, but I have no idea what she should look like."

"I once saw this show on The Travel Channel or PBS about Seattle and its weird tourist attractions."

"I need to know that he’s going to be OK."
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"I'm dying. I’m in a clinical trial not because it’s going to miraculously cure my cancer, but because it could extend my life by mere months."

"I know it’s good news in the way that an arsonist not stealing your TV before he burns your entire house to the ground is good news."

"The only sound in the airless room is the scratching of her pen on paper."

"We’re all dying, aren’t we? I could walk out of here and get hit by a bus this evening."

"I am left with one coherent sentence: they know each other."

"I’m pushing him away because I’m preparing him for the inevitable—even if he refuses to prepare himself."

"Something in me is mending, at the same time that it's breaking."

"You’ve never been a liar at all, Jack! I don’t even know who you are anymore. How you could do this."

"I am top of the class when it comes to recovering from brain surgery."

"I guess there’s not exactly a handbook for this kind of thing, huh?"