Someday

I don't deserve you, I think. But I already know what his answer to that would be: Love should never be thought of in terms of deserving.

We're told that the most powerful words in the world are 'I love you.' And while I think those are powerful, I think equally powerful is this phrase: I have started to know you, and I want to know more.

Don't underestimate the gift of someone who smiles every time they see you.

There are some days you know ahead of time are going to be important, but most of the important ones end up catching you by surprise. the best thing to do is to treat all your days well. Then see what happens.

The whole point of love isn't to have fun times without hard times, to have someone who is fine with who you are and doesn't challenge you to be even better than that. The whole point of love isn't to be the other person's solution or answer or cure. The whole point of love is to help them find what they need, in any way you can. What we have - it's definitely not normal. But the whole point of love is to write your own version of normal, and that is exactly what we're going to do." -Rhiannon

You hear the phrase all the time: a brush with death. What they don’t tell you is that the brush has paint on it. And once it touches you, you can’t get it off.

I want to love. I want to love indiscriminately - people, places, and things. But not just those. I want to love verbs. Adjectives. I want to love beyond category. Because, in my heart, I know that's what I was born to do. And life? Life is just the time I have to figure out how to do it well.

To do this—to understand the full extent to which people can define themselves beyond their bodies—I have had to learn and learn and learn, and then learn some more. And by learn I mean unlearn…and then learn and unlearn and learn some more.

I push her hair over her ear. Look her in the eye. Feel so much love for her then that it feels like the love I have for life itself.

I know there’s a twisted code of honor about never tattling on another student, never speaking up against someone who’s done you wrong. I know I will only make it worse by breaking this code. But the code of honor was written by bullies for the protection of bullies, and I don’t want to follow it.

There's always tomorrow, I tell myself. Which sounds less possible than someday, and much more possible than never." -A

I don't understand how it's possible to know you have a good life, but still be missing out on it. I don't understand why I won't let myself give in to what I have. It's good. What I have is good.

I'd thought I remembered her perfectly. But it is much better to see her imperfectly, to see something new every time she moves.

Yes, our situations are different. But we're both human, and that means we both have the nearly infinite potential to mess things up, and need a nearly infinite amount of patience and grace in order to be the people we should be.

It's the nervousness that comes from knowing that beginnings and endings are the same exact thing, and not knowing where that knowledge leads.

The important thing to remember is that I am not alone. On days when it's hard, I remember I am not alone. On days when it's easy, I remember I am not alone. That is what gets me through. Every day, it gets me through.

Some days I'm up for the challenge. Some days I need to catch my breath. But it's a long story we're writing. Even on the days when it's hard, I know that someday it will be better.

The whole point of love isn't to have fun times without any hard times, to have someone who is fine with who you are and doesn't challenge you to be even better than that. The whole point of live isn't to be the other person's solution or answer or cure. The whole point of love is to help find what they need, in any way you can. What we have--it's definitely not normal. But the whole point of love is to write your own version of normal, and that is exactly what we're going to do. I am never going to be your girlfriend. We are never going to see each other every single day and introduce each other to all our friends. We are not going to the prom. We are not going to worry if we're going to break up after high school. We are not going to worry if we're going to break up after college. We are not going to to worry about getting married or not getting married. What we're going to do is be there for each other. We are going to be honest and we are going to share our lives and we are going to mess up together and help fix it together and we are going to make mistakes, often with each other's feelings. But we are going to be there. Day in, day out. Because I don't want you to be my date, A. I don't want you to be in my life and back out of it. I want you to be my constant. That, to me, is the whole point of love.

Now I know: Love isn't so straightforward. It's never a matter of telling yourself to do it and doing it. It's never a matter of someone else telling you to do it and doing it. It can't exist between two people if they can't also feel it exist outside of them, too. It can involve hurt, but it shouldn't make you hurt all the time. Then it's not love. It's a trap disguised as love." -Rhiannon

— Gwen has a lot of friends. They are there in the halls and in her classes. They are there on her Facebook page. And they are all there at her house for the party that night. Everyone in the family and many of my friends have chipped in with decorations, so it’s like every age I’ve already been is represented—construction paper cutouts and crayon drawings alongside a supercut of the past year playing in a loop on the TV screen. Friends laughing. Friends in costumes. Friends singing. Gwen at the center of it all. I work hard to keep track of who’s who, but I can barely keep up. April (age four) hangs by my side and provides a good diversion, especially because a lot of my friends have to introduce themselves to her and explain who they are. Then the moment comes when the lights are turned off and a cake is carried in, its eighteen candles (“One for good luck!”) flickering to show me all the friendly faces who’ve gathered to celebrate with me. “Make a wish!” Gwen’s mother calls out, and I want to wish for word from Rhiannon and I know I should wish for Moses’s

I can't imagine it. It doesn't feel like a believable future. Which feels like a cop-out. Because who wants to end up with a future that was always believable?

You have to believe that the opposites reach for each other. I had to understand that when I was thinking I am lost, I was actually finding that I was lost. the two opposite things were true at the same time: found and lost.

My identity walks the wires for me, all around the world. The body is now the afterthought. The birthplace, not the home.

How vulnerable it makes you, to depend on a body. How much better to never rely on any single one.

A's disappeared, but her love hasn't

There are some days you know ahead of times are going to be important, but most of the important ones end up catching you by surprise. The best thing to do is to treat all your days well. Then see what happens.

We become, for a few short seconds, our own time zone.

He asked me if I wrote, and I told him the truth - that I was still observing, and hadn't yet found the words.

O propósito do amor não é ser a solução, a resposta ou a cura para a outra pessoa. O propósito do amor é ajudar o outro a encontrar o que eles precisam, da maneira que você puder.