[I] don't think I was trying to kill myself. I just wanted to hurt, and understand exactly whay I was hurting. This made sense: you cut, you felt pain, period.

Life was what happened when all the what-ifs didn't.

a public persona that might be different from what we truly feel inside... everyone wonders if they are good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, no matter how old they are. It is an archetypical moral dilemma - Do you act like yourself and risk becoming an outcast?

What could you give me," I ask, my voice shaking, "to make me forget ... that you forgot about me?

Mistakes are something that happen by accident. You didn't walk out the door one morning and fall into some guy's bed. You thought about it, for a while. You made that choice.

I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but sometimes, that's the only way to find out the truth.

Religion isn't in your DNA. you don't believe just because your parents believe.