Erika

“And in my classes, I will talk most of the time, and you will listen most of the time. Because you may be smart, but I've been smart longer.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
― Alice Walker

“to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.”
― Ellen Bass

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
― elie wiesel