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Daily Inspiration Quote by Susan Smith

"When I left home, I was going to ride around a little while and then go to my mom's. As I rode and rode and rode, I felt even more anxiety coming upon me about not wanting to live"

About this Quote

The sentence is built like a lullaby for suspicion: ordinary errands, repetitive motion, a soft landing at "my mom's". Then it detonates into an explicit confession of psychic collapse. That whiplash is the point. Susan Smith offers a narrative that starts in the key of the familiar (leaving home, taking a drive) because familiarity reads as innocence. The triple "rode and rode and rode" is doing heavy work: it mimics spiraling thought, but it also pads the timeline. In criminal storytelling, repetition can be camouflage, a way to turn time into fog.

The stated intent is self-portraiture as overwhelmed, not calculating. Anxiety "coming upon me" frames emotion as an external force, something that happens to her rather than something she chooses or manages. Even the phrasing "about not wanting to live" is carefully indirect: it skirts the cleaner, sharper "I wanted to die". That distance matters. It keeps agency blurred, inviting sympathy while avoiding the full commitment of suicidal intent.

Context makes the line radioactive. Smith is infamous for murdering her children and initially blaming a carjacking, so any later account of her movements is not just memoir; it's evidence-adjacent narrative control. Read this way, the quote functions as preemptive mitigation: if her actions appear erratic, the cause is internal crisis, not premeditation. It's less a window into her mind than a tool for managing how others are allowed to interpret it.

Quote Details

TopicAnxiety
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Smith, Susan. (2026, January 16). When I left home, I was going to ride around a little while and then go to my mom's. As I rode and rode and rode, I felt even more anxiety coming upon me about not wanting to live. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-i-left-home-i-was-going-to-ride-around-a-95039/

Chicago Style
Smith, Susan. "When I left home, I was going to ride around a little while and then go to my mom's. As I rode and rode and rode, I felt even more anxiety coming upon me about not wanting to live." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-i-left-home-i-was-going-to-ride-around-a-95039/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When I left home, I was going to ride around a little while and then go to my mom's. As I rode and rode and rode, I felt even more anxiety coming upon me about not wanting to live." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-i-left-home-i-was-going-to-ride-around-a-95039/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Susan Smith (born September 26, 1971) is a Criminal from USA.

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