Michelle

“THE DASH SADDENS ME. THE SIMPLICITY MISSES SO much. It doesn’t allow for all the downs that bring a person low or the joys that lift them up. All the bends and turns that make up a lifetime are flattened and erased. The dash on a tombstone is wholly inadequate. Everything around it is more remarkable. The name, etched in cursive or dignified fonts. Sometimes a photo is carved into the grey granite, giving life to the dead. Yet the dash, that line that carries the entire sum of a life within it, is unremarkable.”
― Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers

“To fear is to torture yourself.”
― Namrata Patel, The Candid Life of Meena Dave

“They...think their traumas are the most interesting thing about them."
"If their traumas are the most interesting things about them, how do they get over any of it?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“It’s also OK to rely on people, ask for help. Friendship can only work if it’s reciprocated.”
― Namrata Patel, The Candid Life of Meena Dave