Life is not fair. Get used to it!
-- Mrs. Olson (2 )

Importance: Julie's seventh-grade history teacher, Mrs. Olson, described life as not fair. Julie includes this quotation in Chapter 2, a letter to her daughters. This poignant quotation resonates with unfair aspects of Julie's life, such as being born blind and growing up with defective vision, and now having cancer. She says that much of life is not fair, and that people should not expect it to be fair.

… our purpose in this life is to experience everything we possibly can, to understand as much of the human condition as we can squeeze into one lifetime, however long or short that may be. … And from those experiences, our souls expand and grow and learn and change, and we understand a little more about what it really means to be human.
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: In Julie's letter to her daughters early in the memoir, she states a common theme...