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“HOW TO BE THE GIRL HE WANTS: the first time someone tells you these words I hope you stick out your hand and catch the letters in the air I hope you crunch them in your fist I hope you shove them back into the mouth they flew out of I hope and pray you are not eight years old and hanging off of a shopping cart and groaning about how bored you are, I hope you were not young like I was the first time I read a magazine on a shelf underneath the candy I hope you weren’t young because I still thought everything I read had to be true - but better yet, I hope these words never find you. They tell you to be strong but it’s the little things like this that sit on our hips and tangle in our hair and feel like bees when the night gets dark. It’s the little things we could never ever shake off because the minute we tried, we discovered there were more waiting for us. HOW TO LOOK GOOD FOR SUMMER: smile more often. I hope the first time someone calls you fat, you shimmy your shoulders and wink and feel like a goddess and take it as a compliment. I hope you are not the new kid in a fifth-grade class, glasses on your nose and your hair in tangles. I hope nobody ever touched your tummy and asked if you were embarrassed by the way it jiggles. I hope if you ever hear those words, you reach out your beautiful fingers and touch the temple of the person talking and ask, “Are you embarrassed your brain works like that?” See, I have not gained weight since the eight grade and I’m twenty. I have had about four hundred people tell me I’m skinny but it’s only the two or three voices about the thickness of my thighs and the fat on my hips - these are the only voices that stick. Don’t give them that satisfaction. Take a bath. Stare at your reflection. Count the flecks beside your iris. Promise yourself you’re not going to ruin your life - you won’t let them win. Don’t let that moment cause ripples. Yank out the cruelty from your system. HOW TO HAVE BETTER SEX: stop faking it. Stop engineering your body to be a call-and-response of bruises and shots. I hope you are not fifteen the first time a boy kisses you hard. I hope you do not go home with a bloody mouth and spend the rest of your life thinking love is stained with iron. I hope you are not swallowing your sanity to be with somebody. I hope the first time you let someone touch you, they are someone worthy of your trust - I hope that nobody tries to force you into a label like “frigid” or “slut.” In the animal world, most males have bright plumage so they can attract mates. In humans, we expect ladies to look a certain way. When you break out of the norm, suddenly you’re rattling chains. How dare you not want sex and still look this way. Maybe people are scared of admitting your body has power - it can turn heads in a baggy sweatshirt. Your body doesn’t need a magazine’s confirmation. Your body’s been through hell and still keeps on living. Put on your heels and stalk down the sidewalk. Take off your makeup. Do what you need to feel awesome. HOW TO BE COMFORTABLE IN YOUR OWN SKIN: ignore everything they tell you. Don’t let them in.”

— Maybe one day I’ll make a list of every single terrible magazine I’ve read. I think I’m gonna start an advice column called “If it makes them money, it’s probably not good.” /// r.i.d

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This time of year is like a hall of mirrors, a haunting time of reflection.  I can’t look away from my past, everywhere I turn it stares me in the face, reminding me of where I was last year, 2 years ago, 3, 4, 5 – all the possible futures I envisioned and watched crumble. Oh, how things thing. I am unrecognizable. 

Hall of Mirrors // Grazia Curcuru

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“If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives.”

— Lemony Snicket

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Victoria Chang, from With My Back to the World: Poems; “Untitled #9, 1995”

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“Someday someone is going to look at you with a light in their eyes you’ve never seen, they’ll look at you like you’re everything they’ve been looking for their entire lives. wait for it”

— Unknown

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“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

— Dr. Seuss

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Not going to read all that you blazed

Totally fair, Anon. I’m not here to win any literary awards from you. I’ll just post my story blazed or not, and who knows? Maybe one day it’ll be a bestseller, and you can brag about skipping over greatness. ❤️🤣

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25 posts!

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Prologue:

Meadow sat on the edge of her worn couch, staring at the peeling paint on the wall across from her. The hum of the refrigerator filled the silence, an unwelcome reminder of how little had changed in her life. It wasn’t the life she’d dreamed of, but she’d always been good at finding the beauty in small moments—the way the sunlight filtered through her cracked blinds or the sound of rain on the roof during quiet afternoons.

Tonight, though, her thoughts weren’t on the beauty of life. They were on Lennox.

She’d spent years avoiding the growing ache in her chest, years pretending her feelings for him didn’t matter. But now, as another day faded into night, Meadow realized she couldn’t keep running from the truth.

#Unfolding555Tales will help you follow along

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“i fear that all i’ll ever be is me.

someone simply not enough.”

- e.s. // self.

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If You Fall In Love With Me, Don't. This isn't some cliche Poem about my childhood suffering from the lack of a male role model because that would be a terrible lie. & my dad raised a daughter with a guilty conscience, not a liar. Anyways, I'm here to warn you about what you might be getting yourself into - I smile by habit, not by choice, I giggle out of empathy and humor, or embarrassment but never to purposely spite. I get jealous when I see that someone can provide for other people in a way I cant- but that's because I'm a people pleaser & us people-pleasers: we just want to give. & I go through phases just like the moon, but I always complete my lunar cycle & return to my bright self again & you should probably know that I'm emotional... Like really emotional. I may even think I have you fooled about how I'm feeling, but because my dad didn't raise a liar; I am forced to unintentionally wear my big sobby heart on my sleeve. Oh & I'll let something slide 1,016 times, but after that, I don't give second chances. I'm also an incredibly person to a fault. But when I am invested in something I'd rather lose everything good I have before I even consider declaring bankruptcy but remember, there are two sides to every coin - So; If You Fall In Love With Me, Don't. In every Lunar cycle, the Moon disappears for a while, it has its dark side too & I said I was a people pleaser, & us people pleasers... We pour. In fact, I will keep filling and filling your glass until it's overflowing and my pitcher has gone empty because to see you hydrated is all I could ever want in this world. Until I realized it left me drained. When I'm drained, I'll get frustrated; & sometimes, I'll go into hiding. I'll take a solo hike just to get my distance, peace, and alone time. But don't you worry because ill eventually come home again. Oh- and I'm obsessed with galaxies an stars, but it depresses me to know these things will either get swallowed by a selfishly hungry blackhole or explode and die in a supernova or whatever but that's beside the point The point is: I'm a tangled mess of contradictory things. but I'm not saying this to scare you- I'm saying this to warn and protect you, and to tell you not to worry about a thing. Because remember I am an all-or-nothing person, so if I fall in love, I am all in for you & that if you somehow fall in love with me, Don't. I won't be limited to loving you, but I'll be head over hills for your smile and your giggle, the face you make when your embarrassed, and the look in your eyes when I know you're jealous. I'll fall in love with the way you endlessly try to please people and how it drives you crazy that it's never enough. Or- how you selflessly pour your pitcher to hydrate someone despite the fact you're parched. I'll fall in love with your phases: both dark and Bright, and how sometimes you might go into hiding when you're frustrated. I'll fall in love with how you pretend you're not emotional despite the fact your feelings are trying so hard to escape your eyes. And that special way you recharge yourself when you feel drained. I'll even love your heart after you've given your last second chance to someone for the 1,016th time because I know you're a tangled mess of contradictory things. So don't just fall in love with me, because I'm not going to fall in love with "just you."

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It’s easy to find someone to chill with. But it’s hard to find someone to build with.

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One day you will realize, what I would have done for you.

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THE MANDALORIAN | S2E8 - “The Rescue”

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Sometimes people just want to be happy, even if it’s not real.

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