In the summer before my junior year in high school, I took a college English class. Although it was a required course, I never thought I’d come to enjoy this summer class. We had to read books, some that were boring and some that were fairly interesting. We finally arrived to a section of the course that I found the most memorable and somewhat life-changing. We began reading a book I had been trying to get to for a long time. The book was "The Perks of Being A Wallflower."

To be honest, I heard about the book for the first time when I saw the movie trailer. It was that sort of moment where I see a two minute trailer and suddenly feel the urge the Google the movie and book. The book is a coming-of-age story of Charlie, an introverted teenager who writes a series of letters to a stranger. In these letters, Charlie talks about his daily life and reveals his past experiences. The professor had asked us to write in our journal every day, much like Charlie did in the book, about anything we had done or thought. I love Charlie and everything he wrote. I learned so many things from him, a young character who was about my age at the time.

Because of the book, I learned to be a better person, someone who knows that some days will be good and others bad; that only we can decide what to do with our lives. Here are my list of the top 10 quotes from "The Perks of Being A Wallflower" to think about.

1. “I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons and maybe we’ll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to chose where we come from, we can still choose where we will go from there.”

2. “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that can be.”

3. “We accept the love we think we deserve.”

4. “Enjoy it. Because it’s happening.”

5. “There’s nothing like deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.”

6. “And if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn’t really change the fact that you have what you have. Good and bad.”

7. “Saying someone can’t be sad because someone else may have it worse is just like saying someone can’t be happy because someone else might have it better.”

8. “You can’t just sit there and put everyone’s life ahead of yours and think that counts as love.”

9. “Please believe that things are good with me, and even when they’re not, they will soon enough.”

10. “Things change. And friends leave. And life doesn’t stop for anybody.”