1. The words hadn't flowed from his fingers for the past few weeks.

He never imagined he'd find himself with writer's block, but here
he sat with a blank screen in front of him. That blank screen
taunting him day after day had started to play with his mind. He
didn't understand why he couldn't even type a single word, just one
to begin the process and build from there. And yet, he already
knew that the eight hours he was prepared to sit in front of his
computer today would end with the screen remaining blank.

2. "Explain to me again why I shouldn't cheat?" he asked. "All the

others do and nobody ever gets punished for doing so. I should go
about being happy losing to cheaters because I know that I don't?
That's what you're telling me?"

3. The trees, therefore, must be such old and primitive techniques that
they thought nothing of them, deeming them so inconsequential
that even savages like us would know of them and not be
suspicious. At that, they probably didn't have too much time after
they detected us orbiting and intending to land. And if that were
true, there could be only one place where their civilization was
hidden.

4. He was an expert but not in a discipline that anyone could fully

appreciate. He knew how to hold the cone just right so that the soft
server ice-cream fell into it at the precise angle to form a perfect
cone each and every time. It had taken years to perfect and he
could now do it without even putting any thought behind it.
Nobody seemed to fully understand the beauty of this
accomplishment except for the new worker who watched in
amazement.
5. Her breath exited her mouth in big puffs as if she were smoking a
cigarette. The morning dew had made her clothes damp and she
shivered from the chill in the air. There was only one thing that
could get her up and out this early in the morning.

6. It was the best compliment that he'd ever received although the
person who gave it likely never knew. It had been an off-hand
observation on his ability to hold a conversation and actually add
pertinent information to it on practically any topic. Although he
hadn't consciously strived to be able to do so, he'd started to
voraciously read the news when he couldn't keep up on topics his
friends discussed because their conversations went above his head.
The fact that someone had noticed enough to compliment him that
he could talk intelligently about many topics meant that he had
succeeded in his quest to be better informed.

7. It's always good to bring a slower friend with you on a hike. If you
happen to come across bears, the whole group doesn't have to
worry. Only the slowest in the group do. That was the lesson they
were about to learn that day.

8. There was a time when this wouldn't have bothered her. The fact
that it did actually bother her bothered her even more. What had
changed in her life that such a small thing could annoy her so
much for the entire day? She knew it was ridiculous that she even
took notice of it, yet she was still obsessing over it as she tried to
fall asleep.
 9. She wanted rainbow hair. That's what she told the hairdresser. It
should be deep rainbow colors, too. She wasn't interested in pastel
rainbow hair. She wanted it deep and vibrant so there was no doubt
that she had done this on purpose.

10. Her eyebrows were a shade darker than her hair. They were thick
and almost horizontal, emphasizing the depth of her eyes. She was
rather handsome than beautiful. Her face was captivating by reason
of a certain frankness of expression and a contradictory subtle play
of features. Her manner was engaging.

11. "It doesn't take much to touch someone's heart," Daisy said with a
smile on her face. "It's often just the little things you do that can
change a person's day for the better." Daisy truly believed this to
be the way the world worked, but she didn't understand that she
was merely a robot that had been programmed to believe this.

12. It was difficult to explain to them how the diagnosis of certain

death had actually given him life. While everyone around him was
in tears and upset, he actually felt more at ease. The doctor said it
would be less than a year. That gave him a year to live, something
he'd failed to do with his daily drudgery of a routine that had
passed as life until then.

13. She sat down with her notebook in her hand, her mind wandering
to faraway places. She paused and considered all that had
happened. It hadn't gone as expected. When the day began she
thought it was going to be a bad one, but as she sat recalling the
 day's events to write them down, she had to admit, it had been a
rather marvelous day.

14. I'm meant to be writing at this moment. What I mean is, I'm meant
to be writing something else at this moment. The document I'm
meant to be writing is, of course, open in another program on my
computer and is patiently awaiting my attention. Yet here I am
plonking down senseless sentiments in this paragraph because it's
easier to do than to work on anything particularly meaningful. I am
grateful for the distraction.

15. You can decide what you want to do in life, but I suggest doing
something that creates. Something that leaves a tangible thing once
you're done. That way even after you're gone, you will still live on
in the things you created.

16. Here's the thing. She doesn't have anything to prove, but she is
going to anyway. That's just her character. She knows she doesn't
have to, but she still will just to show you that she can. Doubt her
more and she'll prove she can again. We all already know this and
you will too.

17. "It's never good to give them details," Janice told her sister.
"Always be a little vague and keep them guessing." Her sister
listened intently and nodded in agreement. She didn't fully
understand what her sister was saying but that didn't matter. She
loved her so much that she would have agreed to whatever came
out of her mouth.
 18. There was nothing to indicate Nancy was going to change the
world. She looked like an average girl going to an average high
school. It was the fact that everything about her seemed average
that would end up becoming her superpower.

19.He collected the plastic trash on a daily basis. It never seemed to

end. Even if he cleaned the entire beach, more plastic would cover
it the next day after the tide had come in. Although it was a futile
effort that would never be done, he continued to pick up the trash
each day.

It was a rat's nest. Not a literal one, but that is what her hair
20.
seemed to resemble every morning when she got up. It was going
to take at least an hour to get it under control and she was sick and
tired of it. She peered into the mirror and wondered if it was worth
it. It wasn't. She opened the drawer and picked up the hair clippers.