More Happy Than Not

Memories: some can be sucker punching, others carry you forward; some stay with you forever, others you forget on your own. You can't really know which ones you'll survive if you don't stay on the battlefield, bad times shooting at you like bullets. But if you're lucky, you'll have plenty of good times to shield you.

The boy with no direction taught me something unforgettable: happiness comes again if you let it.

I've become this happiness scavenger who picks away at the ugliness of the world, because if there's happiness tucked away in my tragedies, I'll find it no matter what. If the blind can find joy in music, and the deaf can discover it with colors, I will do my best to always find the sun in the darkness because my life isn't one sad ending—it's a series of endless happy beginnings.

I realize I'm crying a little, too. I remember. Sometimes pain is so unmanageable that the idea of spending another day with it seems impossible. Other times pain acts as a compass to help you through the messier tunnels of growing up. But pain can only help you find happiness if you remember it.

It’s okay how some stories leave off without an ending. Life doesn’t always deliver the one you would expect.

I’m more happy than not. Don’t forget me.

We all make mistakes... but it's also a step in the right direction. If nothing else it's a step away from the wrong one.

Sometimes pain is so unmanageable that the idea of spending another day with it seems impossible. Other times pain acts as a compass to help you get through the messier tunnels of growing up. But the pain can only help you find happiness if you can remember it.

You didn't have to take my side.' I kind of, sort of, definitely always will.

I would do my damn best to be more happy than not.

She pulls away - and then I see why: she's holding out her palm as a landing place for a firefly. It's easy to forget it's there when it's not glowing, until all of a sudden it comes back and surprises you; it reminds you of grief.

From the shapes cast by the green paper lantern, you would never know that there were two boys sitting closely to one another trying to find themselves. You would only see shadows hugging, indiscriminate.

Remember when we had trouble beating the last few levels of Zelda? We pooled our allowances and bought the walk-through guide to help us out.' He softly adds, 'You should've asked for help before cheating.

When someone makes you happy, it's pretty impossible to cage the excitement.

We can't ever be together," he finished. "But I always want to know you, even if we're in the same room and you're just saying hi to me over and over again, I'll be perfectly happy. I'll always want to be sitting across from you.

Everyone plays a purpose, even fathers who lie to you or leave you behind. Time takes care of all that pain so if someone derails you, it'll be okay eventually.

In that moment, I wish my existence were as simple as being set on fire and exploding in the sky.

This is how Thomas lives his life, one misfired dream after the other. That journey may stretch for a lifetime, but even if he doesn’t discover that spark until he’s an old man, Thomas will die with wrinkles he earned and a smile on his face.

You don’t get to keep ignoring the past because you don’t like it.

I have to push ahead with the people who don't take the easy way out, who love me enough to stay alive even whe life sucks

If there's happiness tucked away in my tragedies, I'll find it no matter what. If the blind can find joy in music, and the deaf can discover it with colors, I will do my best to always find the sun in the darkness because my life isn't one sad ending - it's a series of endless happy beginnings.

It’s weirdly possessive and obsessive to like someone; you want to learn all of his stories before anyone else and sometimes you want to be the only one who knows at all.

happiness comes again if you let it.

I want to be so happy that bad memories aren’t following me around like unwanted shadows.

While we can’t always engineer our own happy endings, we can learn how to be more happy than not with the cards we’ve been dealt.

She once promised me that nothing bad would ever happen, and then I grew up and everything went wrong, but I believe her this time because the worst thing that can happen is that nothing will happen at all.

I would do my damn best to be more happy than not. You’ve already experienced so much bullshit so you can always look back on how things could be worse. That’s my two cents.

But when I come back down, I remember something very crucial: Fuck, I have no idea how to have sex.

Imagine if we could glow to attract a mate instead of spraying on cologne that chokes everyone in a fifty-foot radius,