“I never felt poor; I had the feeling that if I needed money I could always get it. I could write a syndicated column for teenagers under the name “Debbi Lynn” or I could smuggle gold into India or I could become a $100 call girl, and none of it would matter.”
― Goodbye To All That
― Goodbye To All That
“The selfish part of all this is that I want to be important—I want to be so important that the world here falls apart, stops functioning, after I step out of it. And of course this doesn’t happen. But there’s a part of me that tells myself that if I were important, if I were truly important, my leaving would have had an impact. It would have done something. There would have been a hole that I left behind that people would notice. Instead, everything just keeps going on without me. And it feels like the lesson is, you don’t matter.
But of course any act of leaving creates that hole. Every act of moving is also an act of removing, leaving an empty space where what moved is no longer there. It’s just, the problem with leaving is that you’re never able to stick around to see what you’ve left behind.”
― Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
But of course any act of leaving creates that hole. Every act of moving is also an act of removing, leaving an empty space where what moved is no longer there. It’s just, the problem with leaving is that you’re never able to stick around to see what you’ve left behind.”
― Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
“I think perhaps what's so difficult about trying to witness our own changes is that we are not above the water. We are each just moving up and down in place, trying to stay afloat.”
― Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
― Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
“You have your entire life to worry about the rest of your life. Just get through today. Don't tell yourself "don't worry," but just... worry smaller.”
― Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
― Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
“I held on to a belief that if even one of these leaves started growing roots, this would not be a complete tragedy. Over the next week, though, every single leaf dried out. Instead of just collapsing and dying the one time, my plant created thirty little pieces out of itself and divided its death into thirty little funerals.”
― Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
― Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
Shawn’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Shawn’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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