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A line from one of my 1997 columns - 'Do one thing every day that scares you' - is now widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, though I have yet to see any evidence that she ever said it and I don't believe she did. She said some things about fear, but not that thing.

Mary Schmich

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Mary Schmich
Age: 70
Born: 1953
Born: November 29
Columnist
Comics Writer
Journalist
Savannah
Georgia
Mary Theresa Schmich
Ever
Columns
Thing
Widely
Every
Scare
Believe
Evidence
Things
Line
Attributed
Lines
Eleanor
Though
Scares
Fear
Roosevelt

More quotes by Mary Schmich

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You can figure out who you were by which movies you loved when
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In twenty years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
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Opening day. All you have to do is say the words and you feel the shutters thrown wide, the room air out, the light pour in. In baseball, no other day is so pure with possibility. No scores yet, no losses, no blame or disappointment. No hangover, at least until the game's over.
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Books are like blankets, the mere sight of them around the house provides warmth and comfort. They are like mirrors, too, reflecting places I've been, phases I've been through, people I've loved or thought I did.
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Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Mary Schmich
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Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you'll have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either of them might run out.
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Unusual commencement advice: Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
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Don't waste your time on jealousy.
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Be nice to your siblings. They are your link to the past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
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Do one thing every day that scares you. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
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The first gay person I ever met was surely not the first gay person I ever met.
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Do not read beauty magazines. They only make you feel ugly.
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Linda Tripp has shown that a true friend is an archivist, a biographer.
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Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
Mary Schmich
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Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Mary Schmich
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Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young.
Mary Schmich
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Chicago is constantly auditioning for the world, determined that one day, on the streets of Barcelona, in Berlin's cabarets, in the coffee shops of Istanbul, people will know and love us in our multidimensional glory, dream of us the way they dream of San Francisco and New York.
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The soul-sucking activity of TV-watching feels better when it is done with other souls.
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For some Chicago expats, food is the medicine that blunts the pain of separation.
Mary Schmich
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Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.
Mary Schmich