Tess

“What really irks this woman, I’ve come to realize, is that I appear to be enjoying myself. I have veered off the narrow path laid out for women to be successful in the world, and it turns out I’m fine. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, but mostly fine. Which inevitably throws a question mark at the end of her decisions. I mentioned this to Nina once, and she understood immediately: “We’re an attack on the value system of certain people.” As if my, or our, enjoyment undermines the hard work they have devoted to staying the path. And worse, calls into question the rewards that path offers. If I don’t feel bad about my life, how can they feel good? I used to feel the need to launch a rousing defense of myself in the face of this, but that’s gone away. It feels like enough that my life is no longer a question mark to me. Here at this table, I don’t need to answer for myself.”
― Glynnis MacNicol, I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris

“I find that sometimes the easiest way to stick to your own experience of your life is, sadly, to stay quiet about it. Slide invisibly through the world doing exactly what you want. Don’t offer anything up for review. If people don’t know what you’re doing, they can’t tell you why it doesn’t matter. Clearly this is not the route I have chosen, though I can see its appeal.”
― Glynnis MacNicol, I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris

“…sometimes the easiest way to stick to your own experience of your life is, sadly, to stay quiet about it, slide invisibly through the world doing exactly what you want. Don’t offer anything up for review. If people don’t know what you’re doing they can’t tell you why it doesn’t matter. Clearly this is not the route I’ve chosen, though I can see its appeal.”
― Glynnis MacNicol, I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris

“When people think about travelling to the past, they do it with this wild sense of self-importance. Like, ‘gosh, I better not step on that flower or my grandfather will never be born.’ But in the present we mow our lawns and poison ants and skip parties and miss birthdays all the time. We never think of the effects of that stuff… Nobody thinks of now as the future past.”
― Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!