β
What you love the most is what you have to fight the hardest to keep.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
You can't control the past, but you can control where you go next.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
You can't truly hate someone until you've cared about them. Until you've loved them.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
Envy is when you want what someone else has. Jealousyβs when you also donβt want them to have it.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Wanderlust is like itchy feet. Itβs when you canβt settle down. But Wanderlove is much deeper than that . . . itβs a compulsion. Itβs the difference between lust and love.
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Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
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Even when life turns out different than what you've planned, it's always better to try and fail than to wonder what could have been.
β
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Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
You got to find your own places. The places you get, girl, the ones that stick in your heart. And if youβre lucky, you find people to share them with.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Hearing about vacations is like hearing about dreams -- no one cares except the person who's experienced them.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Wanderlove is about forgetting the bad things and focusing on the good. Out with the old and in with the new... The only way to escape the past is to keep moving forward.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
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I've come to realize that sometimes, what you love most is what you have to fight the hardest to keep.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
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I know what it's like. To sabotage yourself. Nothing makes you hate yourself more than that.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
When you're three, you don't draw what you see--you draw upon your imagination. Nobody tells you to stop putting wings on people, unless you have a most unfortunate preschool teacher. You are intoxicated by your own magic.
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Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
You can appreciate the good things all around you, but the best part is imminent, just out of reach. Like... perpetual anticipation.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
I used to wonder what it would look like if all my footsteps were painted red: all the steps I'd ever taken in all the places I'd ever been.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
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Because - admit it - there's something perversely appealing about sitting all alone, feeling sorry for yourself, especially when the scenery's stunning and there's a party going on behind you.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
You're not big on people, are you?"
"I wouldn't say that. Just ... when faced with the choice between small talk with strangers and peace and quiet, I'll choose the latter every time. You know?
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Prices are relative. So is poverty. So is happiness.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
I liked the ideaβthat we left pieces of ourselves everywhere we went, coloring all our important places.
β
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Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
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My dad didn't find me - I found myself. So that's when I figured out that the only person who could take care of me was me.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Travel is a matter of perspective.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
I want to draw you. All of you.' Then I pause. 'That came out wrong-you can keep your clothes on.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Impulsive isnβt something you choose. Itβs something you
are.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
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The only way to escape the past is to keep moving forward.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
I guess I work in small ways. It's kind of like this story someone told me, about a guy on the beach in Mexico throwing starfish in the sea. Thousands had washed ashore. Someone asked him why - 'Why are you wasting your time, when there are so many? You can't possibly make a difference.'"
"I know that story! The man threw another one back, and said -"
"'Made a difference to that one!'" Rowan finishes.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
We could liberate a million trophies. We could fill every river to the brim. But it would never fully substitute for liberating ourselves.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
I think I kind of get it," I say. "Your Wanderlove thing."
"Oh Yeah?"
"It's about always looking toward the future. You can appreciate the good things all around you, but the best part is imminent, just out of reach. Like... perpetual anticipation.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Isn't that what your memory was about, Bria? Losing control?"
I pause. "I never knew memories were about anything. Besides the obvious. You make them sound like dreams -- subject to interpretation."
"I think the two are more related than we realize. It's all in how our minds frame them. How we decide what -- and how -- we remember.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
I love moving in extra dimensions. Not just backwards and forwards, but up and down and around.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
I know that this time, the worst thing I can do is let go. And I won't be losing anything. Because it's the most selfish thing I could ever doβto allow myself to fall for someone worthwhile.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
What's the good of being alive if you don't do anything?
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
She turned up the volume. I listened for a second to the high-pitched garble of Italian. "Taffeta," I said, "how is this your favorite part? You don't even know what the words mean."
"I do too," she insisted.
"No you don't--they're in another language."
"Yes I do, Grace." She swiveled the volume knob. "Listen.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
A person's actions could be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on who was watching. Their viewpoints were simply skewed by their beliefs, their prejudices, and their private desires. Their personal kaleidoscopes. I couldn't judge them, of course. I was the same way.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
The world could screech to a halt on its axis and the dock could be swept out to sea in an apocalyptic current, and we wouldn't notice. Our universes have condensed into each other.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
But all that's hugely unlikely -- with the exception of mosquito bites and sunburn. And yet even experienced travelers are still afraid.
"What everyone forgets -- even me -- is the people who actually live here. In places like Central America, I mean. Southeast Asia. India. Africa. Millions, even billions, of people, who live out their whole lives in these places -- the places so many people like us fear. Think about it: they ride chicken buses to work every day. Their clothes are always damp. Their whole lives, they never escape the dust and the heat. But they deal with all these discomforts. They have to.
"So why can't travelers? If we've got the means to get here, we owe it to the country we're visiting not to treat it like an amusement park, sanitized for our comfort. It's insulting to the people who live here. People just trying to have the best lives they can, with the hands they've been dealt.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
It's funny how you can run from the future and the past simultaneously.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard
β
The appeal of leaving and never looking back. No endpoint to your journey.
How gloriously terrifying.
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Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
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Weβre always itching to go, to move on, to escape. We convince ourselves we could truly be happy if only we were somewhere else. Or somebody else.
While itβs smart to plan for the future, we wonβt find real happiness if our eyes never leave the horizon. When weβre all rushing off in different directions, we miss the worthwhile places, and worthwhile people, already around us.
But we canβt wait for them to chase us downβweβve got to seek them out. Because for two people to meet in the middle, both have to take that first step.
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Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
Well... I love moving in extra dimensions. Not just backwards and forwards, but up and down and around. And fins. I love swimming with finsβ human feet are practically useless underwater. I love all the unique things you see on each dive. Millions of
little aquatic soap operas playing out between all the creatures. And the silence. Well, itβs not really silent
down there, but the roar of bubbles blocks any other
sound...
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
I found it mildly depressing that the height of color in Washokey came from the seasonal produce shipped from other states.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
I recall the rasp of charcoal on newsprint, the chewing-gum stretch of a kneaded eraser, the precarious bite of a razor blade in a new pencil. The vibrancy of fresh watercolors squeezed from a tube. A new sketchbook, cracked open to flawless white. The way the smell of turpentine made me feel simultaneously sick and excited.
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Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
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Itβs not that I want to join in. Itβs just . . . I want to want to, if that makes any sense. My time with Toby taught me to look both ways before attempting anything new. Until now, when even the suggestion of joining in makes me resist.
β
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Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Weβre both made of stars, Jory Birch. Everybody is.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Watch the Sky)
β
Wanderlove is about forgetting the bad things and focusing on the good. Out with the old and in with new.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
But I do know this: you got to find your own places. The places you get, girl, the ones that stick in your heart. And if you're lucky, you find people to share them with.
β
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Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Theyβre like the opposites poles of my personality. Mild-mannered, responsible Reese is who I used to be, while in-your-face Oliviaβs who I want to beβwith a few sharp edges dulled.
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Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
Toby liked to say he chose not to be impulsive. As if being impulsive were something you consciously decide. When I look at Starling, with her turquoise turban and wet knot of hair, and at Rowan, with his stack of cheap string anklets, I think: Impulsive isn't something you choose. It's something you are. Like gay, or freckled or bipolar. Something I pretend to be but am not. Not really. Not deep down.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
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Weβre always itching to go, to move on, to escape. We convince ourselves we could truly be happy if only we were somewhere else. Or somebody else.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard
β
But what I do know is this: you got to find your own places. The places you get, girl, the ones that stick in your heart. And if youβre lucky, you find people to share them with.
β
β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
I once heard you can't truly hate a person until you've cared about them. Until you've loved them" -Mandarin
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
What a fucking gorgeous night!
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Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
Or they'd listen, but they wouldn't care. No one would. Hearing about vacations is like hearing about dreams-no one cares except the person who's experienced them. Without tastes and scents and context, they're meaningless.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)
β
I just had to find the courage to take that first step.
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β
Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin)
β
But I realized something. When you spend so much of your life worried about the future...you forget to live" -Alice
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Kirsten Hubbard (Watch the Sky)
β
Back then I thought Mother Nature split the good guys from the bad guys with a fat black line. But the thing is, in real life, they're often the same guy.
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Kirsten Hubbard (Wanderlove)