Yomna O.

“We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

“Elsewhere is a volcano, but it is one you walk into willingly. Elsewhere is a choice, and can only be a choice- you must care enough to bear the weight of the heaviness to which your heart is tethered. This is to say, you have agency in shifting your gaze from a once-home to a now- home. Elsewhere is for the middle children of diaspora, those who have definitely left but haven't exactly arrived.

You have to let yourself be reminded that a part of you is rooted in another place; face what is missing, the empty crevices that once contained what you now lack-an old way of greeting, a pronunciation of your name that is at best an approximation of the real thing and say thank you, for it is because of this deficit that you know yourself. Elsewhere is a conscious choice to remain in the incomplete. Your Elsewhere is like no one else's, but it's the same in its fragile liminality. We live on a suspension bridge, and some days are windier than others.”
― Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces

“Elsewhere is an orientation, an emotional frequency, a chaotic compass that waits until you take a step in one direction, then immediately points in the direction behind you.”
― Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces