Akiko

“Dad, I need to talk to you about something that’s been bothering me for a long time. Remember when you and mom used to have fights and she would leave? I wanted her to stay and when I knew she wasn’t, I wanted to go with her. But, she would say, ‘stay with your father, you’re a boy.’ It’s a feeling of abandonment that I’ve never been able to shake. I had the same feeling when Sarah left me.”
― Behcet Kaya, Treacherous Estate

“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Yet, all armor—from a lobster’s shell to a Navy SEAL’s
flak jacket—ultimately reveals the same truth. All armor highlights
vulnerability. It trumpets the fact that below that hard exterior lies
an interior that is soft, fragile, and in need of protection.”
― J.K. Franko, Eye for Eye

“To them I was first a Black, then a Black from another country, and then a person.”
― Maria Nhambu, America's Daughter