Graduation Day Quotes
"But there is too much at stake. I might not be able to stop what is to come, but I cannot leave without trying."
"Everything important deserves thoughtful study."
"Trust no one. It's not just your life but also the lives of many others that depend on that."
"My father taught me that anything important deserves thoughtful study."
"The best you can do is to try to do what you think is right for yourself and the people around you."
"The knot of worry in my chest dissolves as I focus on a problem I can solve."
"I wish it were easier to decide whether emotional attachment is due to shared experiences or to something deeper."
"I can’t sit back and allow that to happen, but I don’t know how I can help stop the events that are already spinning into motion."
"How difficult those days must have been. With new food resources available and plants and trees thriving in the revitalized soil, it seems impossible to imagine that anyone could have believed trying to survive on their own would be better than working together and following the same rules."
"The work calms me. My mind empties of everything except equations to determine frequency."
"Creating the oscillator circuit. Adding the pieces necessary to allow mine to swing between the other pulse radios."
"The higher frequency I keep for Tomas. The lower works with the other radios."
"There is no way to know if Zeen tried to contact me last night and I failed to hear his call."
"I take the Communicator into the bathroom with me as I wash the sleep from my face, and study myself in the reflector."
"The poison that infected me was too powerful to be healed with the available medicines."
"I killed. Not because I wanted to. But because I had no choice."
"I came to Tosu City unmarked. I thought I understood what leadership meant."
"These five raised scars remind me how far I have come and how much I have changed."
"Where my beliefs were once black and white, I now see shades of gray."
"He could have made the choice to help me flee."
"Looking back, I see so many things my father could have done had he wanted to keep me from The Testing."
"I think of the piece of paper that sits inside the bag I now slide onto my shoulder, the task I have been given."
"A faint clicking sound stops me as I start down the stairs. Zeen. Relief fills me."
"I click the button twice in response and say, 'Are you okay?'"
"The girl I talked to last night says there are rebels on campus who Symon has been using to collect information."
"Logic isn’t what’s leading this rebellion, Cia. Emotion is."
"I obey the harsh whisper and wait. Metal bites into my fingers as I clutch the Communicator and wait for Zeen to speak again."
"Tears of frustration fill my eyes as I shove the device back into my bag and again head for the door."
"Some watch me as I weave between the tables to the one where my final-year guide, Ian, sits along with Raffe."
"I try to catch Raffe’s eye as I slide into the seat across from him, but he does not look up from his plate of grilled egg bread and fruit."
"I think of the clothes I left in the abandoned house and the items that currently sit in my bag."
"Anxiety bubbles inside my chest, making it hard to breathe."
"I can’t forgive him for his actions, but there was something about the way he talked of her that makes me wonder if Will wouldn’t make a different choice during The Testing now."
"Kerrick and Marin can’t be allowed to leave here. Not unless we want them coming after us again."
"I force myself to watch Kerrick die. No matter the reason, I helped caused this."
"Tears swell behind my eyes and sear my throat as I try to hold them back."
"Stay here. Please. This is something I need to do by myself."
"They must have been members of the rebellion."
"I don’t think we can wait much longer to put the president’s plan into action."
"They died for nothing because they did not know we were all on the same side of this cause."
"It’s because I learned that those letters aren’t real."
"I know what he's done, Tomas. But I also remember what I've done too."
"To choose death is to say I am done fighting."
"I cannot live my life pretending what I know is not real."
"I think I’m going to need a clear head for this."
"The ability to put aside personal agendas and decide what is best for the whole does."
"The youngest of all of us. Yet, one thing I have learned since coming to Tosu City is that age does not guarantee better decisions or stronger leadership."
"Just as he saved Tomas and me on the plains when we were attacked."
"I can commit myself to removing the corruption in this soil."
"The only way to be sure The Testing we had to survive never happens again is not to trust our leaders. It is to be one of them."
"Because the only way to know if I am right is to do what is necessary to obtain the truth."
"Despite what I know to be true, I scream for Will and Tomas to find someone to help us."
"I look at President Collindar’s sincere expression and think of the worry she expressed at the number of candidates and students who came to the University and failed to graduate."
"I’m not going to drink this. And I’m not going to insist that you do. The drink is for me."
"The scars on my arm tingled as I stared into their eyes and wondered if these patients knew the mutated humans I shot during the fourth test."
"I see the eyes that met mine when I raised my gun on the unrevitalized plains and fired."