The first person you fell in love with stole your heart. The first person you made love with stole your soul. And if these were one and the same, you were doomed.

Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look.

But you could only remake your own future, not anyone else's, and for some people that just wasn't good enough.

It still hurts," she whispered. "Even when you're doing it for someone else, that doesn't stop your ribs from getting cracked, or your wrist swelling, or your cuts from bleeding.

Listen,” she said. “I may not be what you want right now, but I’m all you’ve got.

In America right now, the people who talk about race the most are people of color - and if we are going to move the needle forward, it's WHITE people who need to acknowledge their role in racism.

Grief is a curious thing, when it happens unexpectedly. It is a Band-Aid being ripped away, taking the top layer off a family. And the underbelly of a household is never pretty, ours no exception. There were times I stayed in my room for days on end with headphones on, if only so that I would not have to listen to my mother cry. There were the weeks that my father worked round-the-clock shifts, so that he wouldn't have to come home to a house that felt too big for us.