Jen⁷ A

“I could no longer distinguish people from monsters. I looked out at the world around me and no longer saw nuance. I saw nothing but the potential for pain and the subsequent need to protect myself, constantly.”
― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“I was tired of focusing on my anger. I was tired of focusing only on my memories of terrible people and the terrible things they'd said and done to me. I was tired of it. The darkness took up too much valuable real estate in my head.”
― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“Ocean had given me hope. He’d made me believe in people again. His sincerity had rubbed me raw, had peeled back the stubborn layers of anger I’d lived in for so long. Ocean made me want to give the world a second chance.”
― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“It was so hard for Ocean to stomach that the world was filled with such awful people. I tried to tell him that the bigots and the racists had always been there, and he said he’d honestly never seen them like this, that he never thought they could be like this, and I said yes, I know. I said that’s how privilege works.”
― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea