Jessica Stroup Quotes

Whenever we changed schools, we had to make a new set of friends. At the time, of course, I hated it. But looking back now, I'm really glad I did, because it forces independence on you.

You learn how to be an individual quick after 15 schools, man. After the first five or six, you realize you're always gonna be the new kid.

Being an immigrant gives you so much courage.

A lot of people ask me what has been the biggest change with me being in England and a lot of people expect me to say something related to football, but mostly it's just growing up and becoming a man.

You want to be in control of a lot. You grow up. You sink or swim. I suppose I swam.

I learned by experience that you can change your circumstance. It's as simple as the serenity prayer; it's a very, very real thing.

Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.

No reason to feel depressed about being depressed. A depression can be a golden opportunity to collect the pieces and build ourselves anew. Global Souls are always on the move, nomads at heart, connected to various cities, commuters between cultures, both from here and everywhere.

You have to constantly redefine who you are.

Life is not linear; you have ups and downs. It's how you deal with the troughs that defines you.

Sometimes you surprise yourself with what you can handle, and if you come out the other end with some wisdom, then it's not such a bad thing.

I've always done more than I ever thought I would. Becoming a professor - I never would have imagined that. Writing books - I never would have imagined that. Getting a Ph.D. - I'm not sure I would even have imagined that. I've lived my life a step at a time. Things sort of happened.

It makes me feel resilient when you tackle different things.

I have enormous respect for the human being because they're asked to take on a lot. And I don't think there's any easy solution. But I think the journey is what you have to finally be satisfied with, but not be afraid of the lessons one has to learn... it ends up as grace. And you grow; you find a way to continue.

For me, I try to see difficulties as a way of expanding and growing as a person inhabiting this planet.

I mean, the things you think will never happen, you have to confront; those things that come into your life that you thought you never could deal with, you do.

I moved to New York when I was 17 and I had no idea what I was doing. I really thought I was going to take that city by storm and it taught me a lot; it was like the school of life. For me, it was like a series of really hilarious experiences in New York with getting jobs and getting fired.

Life does throw some hard stuff at you as you get older, much harder. But you are more able to deal with things.

It has pleased and interested me to see how I could get along under difficult circumstances and with so much discomfort but as I say I was not sent out here to improve my temper or my health or to make me more content with my good things in the East.

'One Tree Hill' really had an impact on my life. It was the first time I left my house and my family in New York and went to a small town in North Carolina. It was the most incredible experience for me.

In that I found being able to talk to my family about my feelings, praying for strength and realizing that our lives have a deep purpose and the journey of our lives is to find out what that is and express it, was the only way I could have gotten through it.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

Someone said adversity builds character, but someone else said adversity reveals character. I'm pleasantly surprised with my resilience. I persevere, and not just blindly. I take the best, get rid of the rest, and move on, realizing that you can make a choice to take the good.

Leaving things behind and starting again is a way of coping with difficulties. I learnt very early in my life that I was able to leave a place and still remain myself.

I always managed to get in trouble, like every kid. But I had to learn a lot of hard lessons on my own, without parents who would nurture me and guard me through that part of life, at a very young age.