I’ve been spending the past few weeks revamping and updating my website. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably noticed that Life Is a Journey has a brand new look. While I was making updates, someone asked me a simple question.
“Why is that quote your favorite?”
They mentioned that no matter how many times I’ve redesigned my website over the years, that quote has always remained. It has survived every refresh, every new chapter, and every version of who I’ve become.
The truth is, there are stories we enjoy, and then there are stories that quietly become part of who we are.
For me, that story is Fruits Basket
When I moved to the United States from Jamaica in 2004, everything around me felt new. Like many people trying to find their place, I found comfort in books and stories. Long before I spent hours wandering through Barnes & Noble, there was Borders Bookstore. It quickly became one of my favorite places, and if you were looking for me after school or on a weekend, there was a good chance I was sitting somewhere in the manga section with a stack of books beside me. If I wasn’t at Borders, I was probably at the library doing the exact same thing.
I had already fallen in love with the original Fruits Basket anime when I first watched it. At the time, there was only one season, and like so many fans, I wanted to know what happened next. So I picked up the manga and followed the story as each new volume was released. Every trip to Borders felt like another step in the journey, and somewhere between those pages, Fruits Basket stopped being just a story and became one of life’s greatest teachers.
It taught me that people carry invisible burdens.
That kindness matters.
That healing is rarely instant.
That everyone deserves to be accepted, especially when they struggle to accept themselves.
And there was one quote that stayed with me more than any other.
It comes from Yuki Sohma after Kisa is bullied and begins withdrawing from the world. Trying to encourage her, he says:
“It would have been nice if we could have lived our lives without taking any wrong turns. But such a thing isn’t possible. We still stumble…we lose our way, we make mistakes and yet little by little, one step at a time we keep on walking forward. With our own two feet… even if we get beaten and bruised along the way we’ll eventually reach something. We’ll eventually reach someone. Until then we’ll keep wishing. So… let’s start walking.
So walk with me. We’ll find a way to overcome this together. No matter what happens, I’ll be right here by your side.”
Yuki Sohma, Fruits Basket, Volume 21 by Natsuki Takaya
I’ve probably read those words hundreds of times over the years.
Every season of my life seems to reveal something different in them.
When I first read them, I think I understood them as encouragement.
Today, I understand them as perspective.
If there’s one thing life has taught me, it’s that very few journeys are linear.
Plans change.
Dreams evolve.
People leave.
New people arrive.
Sometimes the path we imagined disappears completely, only to be replaced by one we never would have chosen for ourselves.
Maybe that’s why this quote has stayed with me for nearly two decades.
It gave me permission to stop believing that wrong turns meant failure.
Instead, they became part of the journey.
When I named this blog Life Is a Journey, it wasn’t because life always feels adventurous or exciting. It was because I’ve come to believe that every season, even the difficult ones, becomes part of who we are.
The unexpected detours.
The unanswered questions.
The dreams that changed.
The people we meet along the way.
None of it is wasted.
Sometimes we become so focused on reaching the next destination that we forget how much the journey itself is shaping us.
That quote reminds me that we don’t have to have everything figured out today.
We just have to keep walking.
One step.
One lesson.
One season at a time.
And maybe my favorite part isn’t even about continuing forward.
It’s the invitation at the end.
“So walk with me.”
There’s something incredibly comforting about those words.
They remind me that life was never meant to be lived alone.
Whether it’s family, friends, mentors, or complete strangers who cross our paths at exactly the right moment, we all need people willing to walk beside us through the uncertain seasons.
One of the most beautiful full circle moments came years later when Fruits Basket was given the opportunity it always deserved. Watching the 2019 adaptation faithfully tell the complete story from beginning to end felt like reconnecting with an old friend. I was no longer the teenager sitting on the floor of Borders with a stack of manga beside me. By then I had become a mother, a founder, a writer, and a community advocate.
The story hadn’t changed.
I had.
Today, Borders is gone, but the complete Collector’s Edition of Fruits Basket sits proudly on my bookshelf. Every so often, I’ll pull down a volume and revisit a chapter. It’s funny how the pages stay exactly the same while I continue to discover something new each time I read them.
Maybe that’s what makes a story timeless.
It grows with you.
It meets you exactly where you are.
And if you’re lucky, it quietly becomes part of who you are.
Looking back, I realize this quote didn’t just become one of my favorites.
It quietly became part of my philosophy.
And perhaps most importantly, how I give myself grace when life doesn’t go according to plan.
Because if this journey has taught me anything, it’s that wrong turns don’t define us.
What defines us is the choice to keep moving forward.
One step at a time.
Reading Fruits Basket in 2017 on vacation
