It Ends with Us

There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.

All humans make mistakes. What determines a person's character aren't the mistakes we make. It's how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.

Just because someone hurts you doesn't mean you can simply stop loving them. It's not a person's actions that hurt the most. It's the love. If there was no love attached to the action, the pain would be a little easier to bear.

He pulls back to look down at me and when he sees my tears, he brings his hands up to my cheeks. “In the future... if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again... fall in love with me.

It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.

Fifteen seconds. That’s all it takes to completely change everything about a person. Fifteen.

I feel like everyone fakes who they really are, when deep down we're all equal amounts of screwed up. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others.

Life is a funny thing. We only get so many years to live it, so we have to do everything we can to make sure those years are as full as they can be. We shouldn't waste time on things that might happen someday, or maybe even never.

Just because we didn’t end up on the same wave, doesn’t mean we aren’t still a part of the same ocean.

Imagine all the people you meet in your life. There are so many. They come in like waves, trickling in and out with the tide. Some waves are much bigger and make more of an impact than others. Sometimes the waves bring with them things from deep in the bottom of the sea and they leave those things tossed onto the shore. Imprints against the grains of sand that prove the waves had once been there, long after the tide recedes. That was what Atlas was telling me when he said “I love you.” He was letting me know that I was the biggest wave he’d ever come across. And I brought so much with me that my impressions would always be there, even when the tide rolled out.

You can stop swimming now, Lily. We finally reached the shore.

And as hard as this choice is, we break the pattern before the pattern breaks us.

No one is exclusively bad, nor is anyone exclusively good. Some are just forced to work harder at suppressing the bad.

In the future... if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again... fall in love with me.” He presses his lips against my forehead. “You’re still my favorite person, Lily. Always will be.

Maybe love isn’t something that comes full circle. It just ebbs and flows, in and out, just like the people in our lives

Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break. It takes an astronomical amount of pain and courage to disrupt a familiar pattern. Sometimes it seems easier to just keep running in the same familiar circles, rather than facing the fear of jumping and possibly not landing on your feet. My mother went through it. I went through it. I'll be damned if I allow my daughter to go through it. I kiss her on the forehead and make her a promise. "It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.

I think that’s one of the biggest signs a person has matured—knowing how to appreciate things that matter to others, even if they don’t matter very much to you.

I’ll keep pretending to swim, when really all I’m doing is floating. Barely keeping my head above water.

I hope you defy the odds of most dreams and actually accomplish yours.

Preventing your heart from forgiving someone you love is actually a hell of a lot harder than simply forgiving them.

In the future . . . if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again . . . fall in love with me.

You’re only human. And as humans, we can’t expect to shoulder all of our pain. Sometimes we have to share it with the people who love us so we don’t come crashing down from the weight of it all

Sometimes even grown women need their mother’s comfort so we can just take a break from having to be strong all the time.

You are my wife. I’m supposed to be the one who protects you from the monsters. I’m not supposed to be one.

We all have a limit. What we’re willing to put up with before we break. When I married your father, I knew exactly what my limit was. But slowly . . . with every incident . . . my limit was pushed a little more. And a little more. The first time your father hit me, he was immediately sorry. He swore it would never happen again. The second time he hit me, he was even more sorry. The third time it happened, it was more than a hit. It was a beating. And every single time, I took him back. But the fourth time, it was only a slap. And when that happened, I felt relieved. I remember thinking, ‘At least he didn’t beat me this time. This wasn’t so bad.

I’m sorry about that. I’m sure you didn’t miss me like I missed you, but sometimes the things that matter to you most are also the things that hurt you the most. And in order to get over that hurt, you have to sever all the extensions that keep you tethered to that pain. You were an extension of my pain, so I guess that’s what I was doing. I was just trying to save myself a little bit of agony.

All humans make mistakes. What determines a person’s character aren’t the mistakes we make. It’s how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.