laras

“Look, some people prefer they,” Alex said. “They’re non-binary or mid-spectrum or whatever. If they want you to use they, then that’s what you should do. But for me, personally, I don’t want to use the same pronouns all the time, because that’s not me. I change a lot. That’s sort of the point. When I’m she, I’m she. When I’m he, I’m he. I’m not they. Get it?”
“If I say no, will you hurt me?”
“No.”
“Then no, not really.”
She shrugged. “You don’t have to get it. Just, you know, a little respect.”
“For the girl with the very sharp wire? No problem.”
She must have liked that answer. There was nothing confusing about the smile she gave me. It warmed the office about five degrees.”
― Rick Riordan, The Hammer of Thor

“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

“Everyone wants you here. We have a saying in Farsi. It translates ‘your place was empty.’ We say it when we miss somebody."
I sniffed.
"Your place was empty before. But this is your family. You belong here.”
― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay

“Learn from your past and be better because of your past,” she would say, “but don’t cry about your past. Life is full of pain. Let the pain sharpen you, but don’t hold on to it. Don’t be bitter.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood