Danna > Recent Status Updates

I wonder how much better these girls would run if they weren’t scared of disappointing their parents. Choosing to run seems much healthier than being made to because your parents are projecting their own dreams onto you. I wonder how much better they’d run if they weren’t racing for their parents’ love.

I’m driven by winning, but wins don’t always mean getting first place.

Wanting to win doesn’t mean I think that I’m better than the other people in the race. It just means I want to win. It is really weird to me that they don’t get that.

“You can’t tally something as someone’s good quality if they believe that not possessing it would send them straight to hell.”

“You can never really believe someone if all they’re telling you is to be the same as they are.”

I didn’t realize at the time that there is no such thing as the perfect day, that mental toughness means understanding you can—no, you had to—perform even when conditions weren’t ideal.

You can’t run sub-14 if your body isn’t physically able to handle that speed. But your body won’t do that without the mind also believing that it can.

“‘Do you understand that I don’t care how big or small this world is, that you are the center of mine? Do you understand that, to someone, you are everything that matters on this entire planet?”

“But she suspected that the truth was that acceptance so powerful made everything else feel small.”

“‘You were lost.’
‘I don’t think I was lost. I think I was trying to lose myself.”

“He has a presence like that, a magnetic field he carries with him always, but mostly tried to play off as a force field, a barrier to entry rather than an invitation.”

“‘There’s always something left,’ Philippa said. ‘Always. That’s what you’ve come here to find out. What’s there, right at the bottom of you, when everything else is worn away.’”

“‘There’s no reason why you need to give up wanting things just because you’re older.’”

“‘To be honest, I don’t think my dad even likes me…’
‘Sure he does,’ Niall said. ‘He probably just doesn’t understand you. Not uncommon for parents and children to find the other fucking incomprehensible, and to hurt each other for want of a little understanding.’”

“Running might be an individual sport, but I didn’t have to do it alone.”

“My brain keeps flashing on what I thought I knew and what I now know. The pieces keep moving and reforming. It’s like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle by strobe light.“

“‘…fitting in and belonging are two different things. Fitting in means changing yourself to fit the situation. It’s either a lie or becomes your new truth. Belonging means you are accepted just the way you are.’”

“I come out here to read. It’s not so much that I like to read as much as I need to escape. I can’t afford cable or drugs or booze, but I can always get books from the library.”

“Rich-people favors were better than money.”

“Being rich, of course, meant it was easier to just keep getting what you wanted. It took less and less effort to keep it.”

"I'm the captain of the sinking ship that is my flesh."

"Unlike me, she knew how to balance innocence with opportunity. "