Maybe we don't have the same definition of about what's beautiful. So define it. Define true beauty.

Teachers wondered why I didn't speak up more in class. Why would I when I knew how precarious words could be, how betraying they were, how vulnerable they made you?

There is real comfort in being quiet.

A pathfinder's job is hard enough — blazing trails where there are none, guided by nothing but hearsay and gut. While you're hacking your way through bracken, worrying about lurking beasts, all you can do is hope you had chosen the right direction.

If there was one thing I refused to be, it was an insignificant footnote in some boy's history.

My confidence was of the hothouse variety, carefully cultivated under highly regulated conditions. One wrong look, one mean comment, and my facade would wither.

Getting lost is just another way of saying 'going exploring.