Alyssa

“How do you make your life your own and not feel guilt over it?”
― Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

“But there’s also a small voice in the back of my mind, a voice that tells me, “You will miss so much by being so guarded.” Perhaps it begins with one person. Someone you trust. You remove a piece of armor for them; you let the light stream in, even if it makes you wince. Perhaps that is how you learn to be soft yet strong,”
― Rebecca Ross, Divine Rivals

“When did persuing your ambitions cross the line from brave into foolhardy? (...) But these were the days of self-fulfillment, where settling for something that was not quite your first choice of a life seemed weak-willed and ignoble. Somewhere, surrendering to what seemed to be your fate had changed from being dignified to being a sign of your own cowardice. There were times when the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain, and that any sort of compromise in its pursuit was somehow your fault.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“I must see my life as a process of becoming a person. It is not just that I change and grow. I am being built up, constructed. The change in me is a change in the roots of my being.”
― Agustine Shutte