Dani Austria

“The events of 1986 spelled deliverance for many, a chance for the country to embark on a new beginning. And yet it appears now that the path to recovery is even more difficult, perhaps because freedom allows individuals and countries many choices, some of which can be foolish, even tragic.”
― Priscilla Supnet Macansantos

“Although I have, in many ways, left and moved on, these places now serve to remind me that though life can often take distressing turns, the possibilities for courage, sympathy, and endurance are limitless. In the most cruel of times, captive and captor accord each other appreciable consideration. Even in the most miserable conditions, in the most inauspicious circumstances, love blossoms and brightens one's small patch of the sky. Perhaps that is where hope ultimately resides, not only in the supreme courage of those who would for their beliefs, but also in the small kindnesses of those who could not.”
― Priscilla Supnet Macansantos, Departures

“Afterward, through the dreary and uninteresting months and years, one finds that life is really all about small and apparently insignificant choices that one makes, again and again, choices that add up to a life. And one comes to realize, too, but oftentimes, dying, in any manner, is not the point. Rather, it is the living through long periods of attending to mostly humdrum duties, working with people of varied, oftentimes conflicting dispositions and persuasions, and managing to keep one's sense of fairness and decency intact through life's trying confinements, departures, and various other adversities.”
― Priscilla Supnet Macansantos, Departures

“When you’re young, you do so many things hoping to be noticed. The way you dress or stand, the music played loud enough to catch the attention of another person who might know a song, too. And then there are things you do as you step out into the world, the real world full of strange adults, testing out what it means to be generous or thoughtful. In that instant, before every memory was placed along some narrative arc, before the act of remembering took on a desperate air, I simply felt lucky enough to witness something so effortlessly kind - to see my friend do something that was good.”
― Hua Hsu, Stay True