Keep creating beauty.

I think what I’m trying to say is that I wouldn’t change it if I could.” “Really?” she asks, surprised. “Because it’s been hard,” I say, a revelation coming to me. “But as hard as it’s been, it’s also been the best thing that’s happened to me. The things I’ve felt this year, the love, the community, I wouldn’t trade them in for an easier life.

The most important four-letter word in our history will always be LOVE. That’s what we are fighting for. That’s who we are. Love is our legacy.

You okay?” I look away. She asks me this question a lot, and I never like it. We don’t ask this question in my family. We know that the answer will always be yes, but that the truth will always be no, so what’s the point in asking the question?

It’s amazing how gung ho he is about saving the lives of fetuses, but then he turns a blind eye to all the actual humans DYING right in front of him.

I always thought my own father hated me, but Stephen said to me that nobody truly hates anyone. Hate is just fear in drag, he said.

Maybe we’re all the lucky ones,” Stephen says. “We had love.

But what I’m thinking as I look at these cities is how I would love to go to a place where nobody knows my name, where nobody expects anything of me. Who would I be in Lisbon? Or San Francisco? I would have no mother there, no stepfather, no one to disappoint. I could even die without hurting anybody but myself.

And I wish she knew that her ability to even utter all these doubts out loud means she thinks highly enough of herself to respect the emotions inside her. I would never let my doubts leave the prison of my brain.

You are not alone and never will be, because you have beautiful, constantly evolving history full of ghosts who are watching over you, who are proud of you. If you ever feel lonely, just look at the sky.