Adventure in Fictional factual

And now the 50 influential characters from all sorts of places.

“Whoever said, “The more things change the more things stay the same,” definitely had the right POV. ” -Clarissa Darling

“I’ll stay home and watch public television.”-Stephanie Tanner

“Jessie, let’s go to the lost and found, because you’ve lost it.”-Kelly Kapowski

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.” – Miss Piggy

“When you set aside your childhood heroes,
and your dreams are lost up on a shelf, you’re at the age of not believing and worst of all you doubt yourself.”-Eglantine Price

” I just wish I could start a relationship about twelve years in, when you really don’t have to try anymore, and you can just sit around together and goof on TV shows, and then go to bed without anybody trying any funny business.”-Liz Lemon

“The key is to be direct, and vague, yet obvious and subtle.”-Cory Matthews

“What the fuzzy?” -Pepper Ann

“Take chances. Make mistakes. Get messy!” -Ms. Frizzle.

“Tragedy hits the school and everyone thinks of me. A popular guy died, and now I’mpopular because I’m the misery chick. But I’m not miserable. I’m just not like them.”-Daria Morgendorfer

“I want to be a starving artist so I need to ring up more debt.”-Jane Lane

“Ask him something serious!”-Lenni Frazier

“Here’s a quick recap: There was boredom followed by dullness with a dash of echh!” -Sabrina Spellman

“10 to 1 you can’t dance to it.”-Fox Mulder

“It’s really nice that you guys missed me. Say, you all didn’t happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?”-Willow Rosenberg

I can just hear you in private. “I dislike that Anya. She’s newly human, and strangely literal” – Anya Jenkins

Seeing a teacher’s actual lunch is, like, so depressing. Not to mention, her bra strap.
– Angela Chase

Bet ya on land they understand, that they don’t reprimand their daughters. – Ariel

I’m a big, tough girl. I tie my own sandals and everything – Megara

I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then. – Alice

Forever is an awfully long time. – Wendy Darling

 Ah! I just said “bet your buns” to a nun! – Laverne Defazio

I’ll let you in on a little secret about the so-called fearless: We’re not as tough as you think we are. – Jen Lindley

Dad, give me one good reason why there can’t be a woman president. – Lindsay Weir

I think I know Aslan when I see him – Lucy Pevensie

Life isn’t all fricasseed frogs and eel pie.  – Puddleglum

Why would he threaten to kill you in public? – Miss Scarlet

I refuse. I absolutely REFUSE to be an onion – Harriet M. Welsch

I need a new name. One that’s not worn out from use. – Winnie Foster

It’s for some stupid, noble reason, isn’t it? – Ginny Weasley

If you tell anyone about this, especially your brothers, I’ll beat the shit out of you.
– Roberta Martin

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship. – Jo March

“People never like me and I never like people,” she thought. “And I never can talk as the Crawford children could. They were always talking and laughing and making noises.”
– Mary Lennox

We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us. – Anne Shirley

What we Tucks have, you can’t call it living. We just… are. We’re like rocks, stuck at the side of a stream. – Angus Tuck

One girl is worth more use than 20 boys. – Peter Pan

Look here! I don’t believe the whole thing can be half as bad as you’re making out; any more than the beds in the wigwam were hard or the wood was wet. I don’t think Aslan would ever have sent us if there was so little chance as all that. – Eustace Scrubb

But even a traitor may mend. I have known one that did. – Edmund Pevensie

Sir, I am at great unrest, and I cannot lie longer in sloth. – Eowyn

If you wanna be a member of the Scooby Gang, you gotta be willing to be inconvenienced every now and then.  – Xander Harris

I was going to be a fighter pilot. Or, possibly a grocer. – Rupert Giles

Insane? If giving away all your worldly possessions, renouncing society, and learning how to purify and drink your own urine is insane, then, mmm, yes, color me insane.
– Eric Matthews

You’re supposed to bag the nematod, not cream it! –  Doug Funnie

I’m always late. That’s why I don’t wear a watch. They depress me. – Trent Lane

The first time I saw this episode my dad pointed out “That’s a federal offense.” Swoon

But before I had this, I was lost too. You see what I’m saying? You need to find…your reason for- for living, man. You’ve got to find, your big, just gigantic drum kit, you know?
– Nick Andopolis

Oh, terrific. Do we do that before or after we flap our arms and fly to the moon?
– Red Fraggle

That’s the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with.
– Kermit the Frog

Oh, how little you understand bears, Kermit. My mother loves surprises. – Fozzie Bear

I finish work, I go home, read a book, have a couple of beers, take myself for a walk, and go to bed. – Rowlf the Dog

Photography’s an art. You gotta have the right film, you gotta have the right exposure, and you gotta scream just before they get the food to their mouth.  – The Great Gonzo

Adventure in Stories

These are the 50 books and stories that have influenced me over the last 25 years. Mostly they’re stories, but there are a couple that aren’t strictly fictional.  I also don’t think it’s a full 50. In no particular order.

“You need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow up. In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than the other girls.”

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”

“I knew that danger lay ahead, of course; but I did not expect to meet it in our own Shire. Can’t a hobbit walk from the Water to the River in peace?”

“Do not pity the dead Harry.  Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.”
The Harry Potter series

“Matilda said, “Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable…”

“Please don’t go. We’ll eat you up. We love you so.”

“Stay is a charming word in a friend’s vocabulary.”

“Nothing ever seems interesting when it belongs to you – only when it doesn’t.”

 “It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled. She had not thought of it before.”

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.”

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”

The Chronicles of Narnia

“But, of course, it isn’t really Good-bye, because the Forest will always be there… and anybody who is Friendly with Bears can find it.”

“Are these things really better than the things I already have? Or am I just trained to be dissatisfied with what I have now?”

“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known.”

“Today is the sort of day where the sun only comes up to humiliate you.”

“If you really wanted to mess me up, you should have got to me earlier.”

“Love is pretty much a decision anyway. Just like happiness. You can decide to either love someone or not, be happy or not. The rest is just commitment to the idea.”

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

“I want to know what passion is. I want to feel something strongly.”

“Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.”

“Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.”

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”

“What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?”

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”

“They were indeed great rascals, and belonged to that class of people who find things before they are lost.”

“It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.”

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.”

“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.”

“I do not understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.”

“The gospel declares that no matter how dutiful or prayerful we are, we can’t save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient.”

“You know what? You’re an individual, and that makes people nervous. And it’s gonna keep making people nervous for the rest of your life.”

“I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”

“I am always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.”

“We know who is who! Now there Isn’t a doubt.
The best kind of Sneetches are Sneetches without!”

“Everything’s a story – You are a story -I am a story.”

“A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others”

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.”

“The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that’s hardly worth the effort.”

“You need a reason to be sad. You don’t need a reason to be happy.”

“She held herself very straight, like Audrey Hepburn, whom all women idolize and men never think about.”

“There’s nothing––absolutely nothing––half so much worth doing as messing about in boats.”

“We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?”

“He wanted to cry quietly but not for himself: for the words, so beautiful and sad, like music.”

Adventure in Influences

In my continuing lists of 50, I’d like to offer you the 50 women (or who are now women) who have greatly influenced my life in the last 25 years. I could easily go to 100 if I included all of the wonderful women who have so beautifully changed my life in the last two years. So I suppose it’s the last 23 years or so. In order of appearance, vaguely. (There are not pictures for all of them. For that I apologize.) To each and every one of these women I offer a lifetime’s gratitude and an endless supply of love and adoration.

Mommy

My mom, Kerry Ann Johnson, brought me into the world and has since taught me and continues to teach me what it is to be strong in a world that offers countless pains. She’s taught me what it is to pray boldly and what it means to invest in people, even when you want to believe it’s hopeless, because it turns out God doesn’t.  She also gave me my damn sense of humor.

Nana

My nana, Margaret Ann Arnold, taught me and continues to teach me what it is to truly trust in the Lord with all that you are, what it means to pray with unrelenting faith and the meaning of generosity.

My grammy, Beverly Johnson, taught me what it looks like to actually care about myself, that I have value even when the world screams that I don’t. She also taught me to be a sassy broad.

Donna Neff, a youth group leader and small group leader, taught me to keep digging into what God wants in my life.

Claire Kowatch

Claire Kowatch, my third grade teacher and mother of my friend Krista, taught me. She taught me to ask the questions no one wanted to answer. She taught me that it’s okay, and encouraged, to try and to think differently than other people, that creativity and imagination are just as important as knowledge. She also taught me the meaning of a gentle spirit.

Pam Scott taught me constancy and persistence in love and that some times the annoying kid in your van just needs a change of scene.

Happy Waltz, my fifth grade teacher, taught me that it’s okay to be a bold woman, and that that boldness doesn’t have to come from a need to be strong, but from the strength we find in Christ.

Aida Toffolo, my elementary principal, taught me what it is to be a kind-hearted woman of faith even when the rest of the people around you want to believe you’re someone to be feared.

Laurie Doden, youth group and small group leader, while we laughed at the time, Lori ended up teaching me more about my value as a woman for God than I thought she did. I wanted to believe she was crazy, but the truth is Lori is the one who taught me the value of relationships. That there’s so much more to life than being married or in a relationship. That furthering the Kingdom is the best pursuit we have.

Julie Sefton, my high school band director, taught me that what you are passionate about is far more important than appeasing the masses.

Emily Pippin, my seventh grade Bible teacher and choir director, was a highly intimidating woman, but at the end of it all, with the exception of two high school Bible teachers, taught me more about biblical history than anyone else. There are things that Mrs. Pippin said and asked us that still plague my mind to this day.

Farrah Limmer

Farrah Limmer and Janice Maurizi, raft trip leaders, instilled in me a passion for young women and the beauty of laughter in even the hardest times.

Deb Todd, Julie Jahn and Candis Allwein, the Blackhawk theatre trifecta, offered me opportunities to grow and instilled in me a love for art, when art didn’t seem to be important.

Marilyn Knuth, Kim Hatch, Carrie Ferrier and Sherry Maurizi, mom’s of friends from high school, taught me hospitality, generosity, involvement, adoration, pursuit, strength, faith and much more.

Meri Sikora, youth leader and youth pastor’s wife, helped me pick my university, taught me to pursue what I love (even if I had no idea what that was) and taught me the value of all of us.

Hannah Opliger and Shalom

Hannah Opliger, then Kowatch friend of my brother, sister of Krista and castmate, showed me balance. Now, Hannah continually represents intentionality in all things.

Liz Cashen-Grayson, a castmate and former rafter, taught me not to take everything so damn seriously.

Erin Scott

 Erin Scott, former castmate, taught me to be strong when everyone is waiting for you to fall and expects you to be weaker than you are. That persistence and trust in God are far more important than any accolades.

Elise will undoubtedly hate the picture of chosen

Elise Latino taught me to remember “Who the hell cares?” You are who you are and the only thing better than that is having a dear friend to share it with.

Emily Louden, Maria Bowersock, Katelyn Ferrier, Missy Rayls, Abi Allwein, Megan Jahn and Megan Fansler have taught me many things. As friends from high school they have undeniably shaped me into who I am. Even now they continue to teach me about faithfulness and strength through some of the hardest times.

Krista Agler

Krista Agler, my former nemesis and now dear friend, has through the grace of God taught me more about reconciliation than anyone. She continues to teach me about balance and what it looks like to pursue Christ, even when those around you might think you’re acting like a wackadoo. As well as a bounty of what grace and forgiveness are really about.

Heather Sommer

Heather Sommer has taught me to carry on in the face of adversity and to laugh any moment I get.

Headset

Cara Glass, Bekah Harding and Deanna Repic, Headset, taught me what real friendship looks like and how important it is to actually have people who care about you. They taught me what a friendship looks like when it blossoms around a pursuit of God and the necessity of college.

Hannah Krauskopf

Hannah Krauskopf taught me and continues to teach me how to be a woman with her own thoughts and her own needs in a world of men. She’s also taught me how to laugh at life while maintaining a focus on Christ.

Amber Patrick

Amber Patrick taught me how absolutely okay it is to be different and how that still fits into the lives of everyone else. Not to mention teaching me to be comfortable with myself, because if I wasn’t, she was going to continue to be too comfortable with myself.

Becca Rodgers-Buntjer, Kylie Edmonds, Laura Brautigam Anderson and Sharon Voss showed me what friendships are supposed to look like before I even realized how valuable they really are. They all gave me strength through my freshman year of college and showed me what it looks like to take care of those who feel out of place.

Dana Frick

Dana Frick teaches me to love in the face of adversity. To love others and love and pursue Christ even when everything in you says it’s illogical and yet still screams that it’s the only answer. She also defines encouragement.

Ashley McCann, that face.

Ashley McCann teaches me to be myself no matter freaking what.

Kristen Blossom

Kristen Blossom taught me to go on, be lavish. Not in an indulgent way, but in a willingness to be outrageous and appear comfortable when throwing yourself before the lions, even though inside you’re vomiting and peeing your pants. She’s also taught me loyalty.

Brett Jenkins-Braun

Brett Jenkins-Braun where do I start? Brett’s taught me I’m funny even when I think I’m not. She’s taught me how to be the very best friend I can be, even if it never gets acknowledged. She’s taught me to pursue everything I love with a panicked sense of power. To name a few. P.S. If you haven’t, you should go order this book she wrote.

Dr. Mary Ruthi taught me what it looks like to be a highly intelligent woman with a seemingly erratic brain. That it’s okay to kooky when your brain is full of something worthwhile. She also let me know that it’s okay to understand all of the aspects of social life, but not have a clue how to employ that knowledge. She’s also probably why I’m so good at observing people’s tendencies.

Melissa Keighin

Melissa Keighin has taught me what dedication and selfless consideration truly are. She’s also been a clear example of how friendships spring up in the most unlikely places.

Ashlee Edinger

Ashlee Edinger has taught me what unrelenting love looks like. She is clear representation of loving devotion to anyone around her.