It’s only been two days since the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States and there have been a wave of emotions: anger, confusion, despair, and of course celebration from those who support the outspoken president elect. While this is certainly a moment that will go down in American history, in light of everything, we still have our books. And in these books lies the ideas, beliefs, and heart of who we are as an American people: fighters.
1. “This is what it felt like to have a broken heart. It felt less like a cracking down the middle and more like she had swallowed it whole and it sat bruised and bleeding in the pit of her stomach.”
~ Wendy Wunder, The Probability of Miracles
2. “The sun kept on with its slipping away, and I thought how many small good things in the world might be resting on the shoulders of something terrible.”
~ Carol Rifka Brunt, Tell the Wolves I’m Home
3. “We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming — well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate.”
~ Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses
4. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
5. “Remember that you and I made this journey together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.”
~ Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
6. “Everything’s a risk. Not doing anything’s a risk. It’s up to you.”
~ Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything
7. “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
~ A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
8. “The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.”
~ Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper
9. “The thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was a light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
10. “I didn’t want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that’s really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you’re so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.”
~ Ned Vizzini, It’s Kind of a Funny Story
11. “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkein, The Two Towers
12. “If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him.”
~ Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
13. “Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.”
~ Lemony Snickett, The Beatrice Letters
14. “Never lose faith in yourself, and never lose hope; remember, even when this world throws its worst and then turns its back, there is still always hope.”
~ Pitticus Lore, The Power of Six
15. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”
~ Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
No matter what our future holds, no matter what hate may endure, the United States will always be a place full of hope and perseverance. We’ve come too far to give up now. So, fellow Americans, please don’t.
YouTube Channel: Associated Press
Featured image via The Odyssey Online
h/t Teen Vogue