Take the Lead (Season 8, Episode 3)

You work, you study, you prepare. Months and years, leading to one day.  The day when you step up.  On that day, you have to be ready for everything.  But there's one thing you can never quite prepare for.  The day when you step down.

Sometimes, it happens in an instant.  We step up.  We become a leader.  We see a path forward.  We see a path, and we take it.  Even when we have no idea where we're going.

She's Gone (Season 8, Episode 2)

When my mother left my father, she didn't tell him she was leaving and taking me with her until we'd landed on the other side of the country.  In those days, it was called "family troubles".  Today, it'd be called kidnapping.

You think that true love is the only thing that can crush your heart.  The thing that will take your life and light it up... or destroy it.  Then, you become a mother.

Free Falling (Season 8, Episode 1)

Even good marriages fail.  One minute you're standing on solid ground, the next minute... you're not.  There's always two versions - yours, and theirs.  Both versions start the same way, though.  Both start with two people falling in love.

Nobody gets married thinking it's going to fail.  You think yours is the one that's going to make it.  And so it always comes as a shock - the moment when you realize it's over.  One minute you're standing on solid ground.  The next minute, you're not.

Do you have what it takes?  If your marriage is in trouble, can you weather the storm?  When the ground gives way and your world collapses, maybe you just need to have faith, and trust that you can survive this together.  Maybe you just need to hold on tight.  And no matter what, don't let go.

Unaccompanied Minor (Season 7, Episode 22)

I always said I'd be happier alone.  I'd have my work, my friends, but, someone in your life all the time?  More trouble than it's worth.  Apparently, I got over it. 

There's a reason I said I'd be happy alone.  It wasn't 'cause I thought I'd be happy alone.  It was because I thought if I loved someone, and then it fell apart, I might not make it.  It's easier to be alone, because what if you learn that you need love, and then you don't have it?  What if you like it, and lean on it; what if you shape your life around it, and then, it falls apart.  Can you even survive that kind of pain?  Losing love is like organ damage.  It's like dying.  The only difference is, death ends.  This, it could go on forever.

I Will Survive (Season 7, Episode 21)

We've all heard the saying.  It's one of those things we learn in seventh grade science class - adapt, or die.  Adapting isn't easy, though, you have to fight your competition, fend off their attacks, and sometimes, you have to kill.  You do what you need to do to survive. 

Adapt, or die.  As many times as we've heard it, the lesson doesn't get easier.  Problem is, we're human.  We want more than just to survive.  We want love.  We want success.  We want to be the best that we can be.  So we fight like hell to get those things.  Anything else feels, like death.

White Wedding (Season 7, Episode 20)

Germs. Disease.  Toxins.  Our bodies encounter dangers all the time.  Just beneath the surface.  Hidden.  Whether you realize it or not, your body is constantly protecting itself.  The body knows when it's encountered something that doesn't belong.  The body detects the invader, it releases its white blood cells, and it attacks.

Just when we think we've figured things out, the universe throws us a curve ball.  So we have to improvise.  We find happiness in unexpected places.  We find our way back to the things that matter the most.  The universe is funny that way.  Sometimes it just has a way of making sure we wind up exactly where we belong.

It's a Long Way Back (Season 2, Episode 19)

After a trauma, your body is at it's most vulnerable.  Response time is critical, so you're suddenly surrounded by people - doctors, nurses, specialists, technicians.  Surgery is a team sport - everyone pushing for the finish line, putting you back together again.  But surgery is a trauma in and of itself and once it's over, the real healing begins.  We call it recovery.  Recovery is not a team sport.  It's a solitary distance run.  It's long, it's exhausting, and it's lonely as hell.

The length of your recovery is determined by the extent of your injuries.  And it's not always successful.  No matter how hard we work at it, some wounds might never fully heal.  You might have to adjust to a whole new way of living.  Things may have changed too rapidly to ever go back to what they were.  You might not even recognize yourself.  It's like you haven't recovered anything at all.  You're a whole new person, with a whole new life.