Mari Andrew > Quotes

“It didn't feel like a season at the time; it felt like the rest of my life. That's how most seasons feel while you're living them, and then your surroundings transform just as you're getting settled in.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“They say saudade is unique to Portuguese, impossible to define in English. Nostalgia gets pretty close, but saudade is more complicated. It's the remnant of gratitude and bliss that something happened, but the simultaneous devastation that it has gone and will never happen again. It marries the feelings of happy wistfulness and poignant melancholy, anticipation, and hopelessness. it's universally understood by a cross-ocean culture with a constant feeling of absence, a yearning for the return of something now gone.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“You've felt it before. You'll feel it again. Heartbreak is one of the trade-offs of getting to spend a precious few decades in this world. Never let the futile fear of it stop you from sending that text, saying it first, trying again, or letting it go.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“There were so many times I felt like I was sitting around waiting. So many times I was meandering around with a heavy heart, mourning the loss of a happier season without any idea what would come next, and when, I can see now that those were the seasons of loss--my own personal autumns--and they were some of the most important.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“But at a certain point, healing means going out into the world and being in it. This is the hardest part. You can read all you want about how to grow a garden, but until you take yourself down to the plant store and ask for help, invest in some seedlings, and try your luck at keeping them alive, you’re never going to become a gardener. I’m sorry. You can’t be one in your head.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“Acceptance is not a relief; it's the realisation that you will always carry grief with you.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“I noticed magic, so magic was more likely to happen. I began to realize it was my power.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“Show up with stories to tell. Your whole life prepares you for the big moments, so go in confidently knowing you have years of experience to your name. This goes for interviews, dates, or any important conversations. It's ultimately about whether they're a fit for you than you a fit for them, so be funny and self-assured and wear hot pink if you feel like it.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“With every change, I took a step toward my own happiness, and I strengthened the muscles that would lift me out of the place where I thought myself to be stuck.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“When logic fails us, it’s an inconvenience. When magic fails us, it feels like an essential part of our humanity is brutally taken away: our ability to imagine beyond our circumstances, our potential to make meaning from the ordinary.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“I quickly learned that choice is a luxury, and is largely responsible for pleasure. Half the enjoyment of putting on perfume is the decision to do so, and the decisions of which one, where, and how much.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“You may not always have the same friends or same relationship you have now, but you'll always be with you. As a new adult, now's the time to become the person you want to live with for the rest of your life.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“Falling in love with someone else is a little bit about falling for yourself.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“The end of summer is slower. This time of year is precious to everyone. It belongs to the soft cotton pat of your heart that never ages past ten years old. You can smell it - fresh pencil shavings and cinnamon.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“think humans might be so uncomfortable with transition periods because we don’t give ourselves the right to be lonely and uncomfortable like lobsters do. We’re so often told, “Focus on the positive. Choose happiness. Good vibes only” that we feel like something must be wrong with us when we’re not a living, breathing inspirational cross-stitch pillow.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“There isn’t a satisfying range of vocabulary for experiences that are deemed taboo, and there certainly aren’t accepted ways to celebrate and mourn the highs and lows.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“The opposite of depression is not happiness, but wanting.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“In the throes of heartache and grief, I had felt stuck in the awkwardness of not knowing quite how to move forward, I felt bound to the ditch for so long, unable to see what it looked like from above. At times it felt like I'd never get out, and I got used to the constant tripping and stumbling around. It didn't feel like life should be, but it was how my life was. I accepted it.

But over time, I strengthened into a different version of myself. I had new muscles, a new way of moving in the world.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“You may not always have the same friends or same relationship you have now, but you'll always be with you.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“Why do I have to bring light to every sad, broken, fucked-up man who can’t find himself on his own? Go travel or join a meditation club, don’t use women! Write in your journal!”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“I'd have to go through this pain alone, and it was up to me to decide if it would make me stronger or weaker.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“Were any of those stars dead? Did it matter at all? What’s incredible about Becky is that the magic is real to her no matter what. She has the wisdom of a spiritual authority who says of their holy book of choice, “All of this is true, and maybe some of it actually happened.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“I want the full menu, everything available to me in this life: dark, bright, that purply-pink weird twilight color, and golden.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“Knowing that I'm not immortal now--that no one is--every morning I get a rush of adrenaline at the sheer thought that I am alive. This feeling is as wonderful and terrifying as it sounds. I am fully aware that my world could end tomorrow, which leaves me invigorated, but also more anxious. I am living intensely and quickly and productively and richly, but on the flip side, the sudden realisation of mortality kept me up at night throughout my grieving process.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“Seasons of loss, like the colder seasons, are the hardest ones to endure, even if you logically understand they won't last forever.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“My life doesn't end here, I told myself. In many ways, it begins here.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood

“Giving my transitions as much attention and curiosity as my brightest afternoons has helped me appreciate the inner sky I’m continually trying to make more colorful. Who wants a sky that is blue all the time?”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“You can’t be what you’re not. You can only be the fullest version of yourself. You can’t please everyone.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“To become as present in your own city as you would be while traveling, you have to make the city feel new: take a different commute home, listen to different music, go into restaurants where you haven’t looked at the menu beforehand and may not be sure what to order. You have to get a little disoriented, even annoyed. That’s what it’s like to be around humans, who are unpredictable and often annoying.”
― Mari Andrew, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between

“Acceptance is not a relief, it's the realization that you will always carry grief with you.”
― Mari Andrew, Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop, Zigzagging Journey to Adulthood