--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: She shook her head. 'Look. We both know…" description: "\"“She shook her head. 'Look. We both know life is short, Macy. Too short to waste a single second with anyone who doesn't appreciate and value you.' 'Yo..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b1/sarah-dessen-110_big-time_she-shook-her-head-look-we-both-know-lif_2853530.jpg" --- # She shook her head. 'Look. We both know life is short… ![“She shook her head. 'Look. We both know life is short, Macy. Too short to waste a single second with anyone who doesn't appreciate and value you.' 'You said the other day life was long,' I shot back. 'Which is it?' ' It's both,' she said, shrugging. 'IT all depends on how you choose to live it…” quote by Sarah Dessen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b1/sarah-dessen-110_big-time_she-shook-her-head-look-we-both-know-lif_2853530.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b1/sarah-dessen-110_big-time_she-shook-her-head-look-we-both-know-lif_2853530.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b1/sarah-dessen-110_big-time_she-shook-her-head-look-we-both-know-lif_2853530.jpg) > ““She shook her head. 'Look. We both know life is short, Macy. Too short to waste a single second with anyone who doesn't appreciate and value you.' 'You said the other day life was long,' I shot back. 'Which is it?' ' It's both,' she said, shrugging. 'IT all depends on how you choose to live it. It's like forever, always changing.' 'Nothing can be two opposite things at once,' I said. 'It's impossible.' 'No,' she replied, squeezing my hand,' what's impossible is that we actually think it could be anything other than that. Look, when I was in the hosptal, right after the accident, they thought I was going to die. I was really fucked up, big time.' 'Uh-huh,' Monica said, looking at her sister. 'Then,' Kristy continued, nodding at her, 'life was very short, literally. but now that I'm better it seems so long I have to squint to see even the edges of it. It's all in the view, Macy. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You can never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.' Monica, lighting another cigarette, nodded. 'Mmm-hmm,' she said. 'What you have to decide,' Kristy said to me, leaning foreward, 'is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you'd want to have spent it? It seemed like it was a choice I had already made. I'd spent the last year and a half with Jason, shaping my life to fit his, doing what I had to in order to make sure I had a plae in his perfect world, where things made sense. But it hadn't worked. 'Listen,' Kristy said,' the truth is, nohing is guaranteed. You know that more than anybody.' She looed at me hard, making sure I knew what she meant. I did. 'So don't be afraid. Be alive.' But then, I couldn't imagine, after everything that had happened, how you could live and not constantly be worrying about the dangers all around you. Especially when you'd already gotten teh scare of your life. 'It's the same thing,' I told her. 'What is?' 'Being afraid and being alive.' 'No,' she said slowly, and now it was as if she was speaking a language she knew at first I wouldn't understand, the very words, not to mention the concept, being foreign to me. 'Macy, no. It's not.”” [Sarah Dessen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-dessen/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Life’s brevity and length coexist; meaning depends on how we choose to live each moment, embracing both urgency and continuity. **In simple terms:** Life is short and long; choose how to live it. Key Takeaway Make each second count. Themes mortality choice perspective resilience Mood reflective hopeful determined Type philosophical conversational inspirational When to use this quote - recovering from trauma - making life decisions - valuing relationships - overcoming fear - living intentionally Key Concepts existentialism mindfulness personal growth Questions to Reflect On - How do you decide what truly matters? - What does “forever” mean to you? 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People weren't meant to be together forever,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-dessen/i-had-no-illusions-about-love-anymore-it-came-it-went-it-left/) [Sarah Dessen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-dessen/) > [“But maybe that isn't so bad. You can't love anyone that way more than once in a lifetime. It's too hard and it hurts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-dessen/but-maybe-that-isn-t-so-bad-you-can-t-love-anyone-that-way-more-than/) [Sarah Dessen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-dessen/) > [This was just one night, one chance to vary and see where it took me. 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It's like forever, always changing.' 'Nothing can be two opposite things at once,' I said. 'It's impossible.' 'No,' she replied, squeezing my hand,' what's impossible is that we actually think it could be anything other than that. Look, when I was in the hosptal, right after the accident, they thought I was going to die. I was really fucked up, big time.' 'Uh-huh,' Monica said, looking at her sister. 'Then,' Kristy continued, nodding at her, 'life was very short, literally. but now that I'm better it seems so long I have to squint to see even the edges of it. It's all in the view, Macy. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You can never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.' Monica, lighting another cigarette, nodded. 'Mmm-hmm,' she said. 'What you have to decide,' Kristy said to me, leaning foreward, 'is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you'd want to have spent it? It seemed like it was a choice I had already made. I'd spent the last year and a half with Jason, shaping my life to fit his, doing what I had to in order to make sure I had a plae in his perfect world, where things made sense. But it hadn't worked. 'Listen,' Kristy said,' the truth is, nohing is guaranteed. You know that more than anybody.' She looed at me hard, making sure I knew what she meant. I did. 'So don't be afraid. Be alive.' But then, I couldn't imagine, after everything that had happened, how you could live and not constantly be worrying about the dangers all around you. Especially when you'd already gotten teh scare of your life. 'It's the same thing,' I told her. 'What is?' 'Being afraid and being alive.' 'No,' she said slowly, and now it was as if she was speaking a language she knew at first I wouldn't understand, the very words, not to mention the concept, being foreign to me. 'Macy, no. It's not.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Dessen" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-dessen/she-shook-her-head-look-we-both-know-life-is-short-macy-too-short-to-2/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Big time" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-dessen/she-shook-her-head-look-we-both-know-life-is-short-macy-too-short-to-2/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b1/sarah-dessen-110_big-time_she-shook-her-head-look-we-both-know-lif_2853530.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b1/sarah-dessen-110_big-time_she-shook-her-head-look-we-both-know-lif_2853530.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b1/sarah-dessen-110_big-time_she-shook-her-head-look-we-both-know-lif_2853530.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“She shook her head. 'Look. We both know life is short, Macy. 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