1. “With the sensation that I was throwing my life away, I jumped into space. Some tips of branches snapped past me and then I crashed into the water. My legs hit the soft mud of the bottom, and immediately I was on the surface being congratulated. I felt fine.”

This reminds me of when I feared riding roller coasters. I always felt tense riding one and each time I rode one unwillingly, I didn’t enjoy it, because it was forced. But the one time I chose to ride a roller coaster, I loved it. I felt that same sensation of flying and then the coaster stopped and I knew I was okay. There was nothing to fear and I continue to enjoy riding roller coasters.

2. “We were the best of friends at that moment.”

This reminds me of people I met when I was younger. I would play with them all the time at daycare or preschool and then one day I just never saw them again. It seems strange to meet people who you think are your best friends for ever. But they’re only you’re best friend at that moment in life.

3. “Phineas was very happy; sour and stern Mr. Patch-Withers had been given a good laugh for once, and he had done it!”

I can relate to this, because I enjoy making people laugh especially those who don’t laugh often. I don’t make people laugh to charm myself out of trouble, but I just enjoy brightening people’s day. Most of the time, I make them laugh unintentionally.

4. “Exposing a sincere emotion nakedly like that at the Devon School was the next thing to suicide. I should have told him then that he was my best friend also and rounded off what he had said. I started to; I nearly did. But something held me back.”

I think this highlights people today. Perhaps, it’s been a part of every society. People are too afraid to express their emotions. There are rare people, like Finny, who share their feelings and I admire them. I can’t stand to think that people bottle their feelings, their true feelings, because they think others will give them a hard time for it.

5. “The next morning I saw dawn for the first time. It began not as the gorgeous fanfare over the ocean I had expected, but as a strange gray thing, like sunshine seen through burlap.”

This quote reminds me how I often idealize things in my head and picture how they look only to find in reality that the image isn’t as glamorous. Mostly this happens when I make a picture in my head to draw, but when I draw it, it doesn’t resemble the image in my head.

6. “It struck me then that I was injuring him again. It occurred to me that this could be an even deeper injury than what I had done before.”

Gene is talking about when he tells Finny that he caused the accident. I can relate to this, because often I wonder if I should have told someone the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts people and you wish you hadn’t told them. You wish you could go back to living in blissful ignorance.

7. “I thought the issue was settled until at the end he said, ‘Listen pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,’ and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.”

I can relate to doing something for someone. That is, doing something for them because they wish they had. You do it in their honor. But I’d never think to “become” that person as Gene does. I enjoy this quote because it’s bittersweet: Gene realizes his purpose in life, but it’s not his own.

8. “If you want to be in a really functional room you ought to spend time in the bathroom then.”

This is one of my favorite statements, because it’s true: the bathroom is very functional room. Work gets done in the bathroom. In fact, I enjoy those moments I come out of the bathroom feeling fresh as if I switched into a new body. I imagine it’s the same feeling my Energizer Rechargeable batteries have when I place them in the charger.

9. “It’s all Japanese to me.”

This statement captures how much the war has affected people in Gene’s generation. Popular phrases are twisted to fit the time they live in. Of course, this one is Gene’s spin on “It’s all Greek to me.” The war has invaded every part of life.

10. “I knew that part of friendship consisted in accepting a friend’s shortcomings, which sometimes included his parents.”

I can relate to Gene completely on this one. I can’t stand hanging out with people who have crazy parents. But we’re friends so I can get over their parents. Unless their parents don’t ever let them out of the house and I never see them. That would be the only deal-breaker.