Envy, after all, comes from wanting something that isn't yours. But grief comes from losing something you've already had.

It's crazy, right? To love someone who's hurt you? It's even crazier to think that someone who hurts you loves you.

You can't hate someone until you know what it might be like to love them.

You make yourself strong because it's expected of you. You become confident because someone beside you is unsure. You turn into the person others need you to be.

Isn't it amazing how, when you strip away everything, people are so much alike?

As a child, what I was missing was so much bigger to me than what I had. My mother-mythic, imaginary-was a deity and a superhero and a comfort all at once. If only I'd had her, surely, she would have been the answer to every problem; if only I'd had her , she would have been the cure for everything that ever had gone wrong in my life.

We could all be lucky. We could all be what we want to be, instead of who someone else told us to be.