Smiling, Regardless

“Pay attention to the things you are naturally drawn to. They are often connected to your path, passion, and purpose in life. Have the courage to follow them.”

“Love isn’t only love, sweetheart. It’s hard work, and trust, and tears, with even a few glimpses of devastation. But at the end of each day, if you can still look at the person at your side and can’t imagine anyone else you’d rather have there, the pain, the heartache and the ups and downs of love are worth it.”

“There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.”

“That’s the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it’s impossible to ever see the end. The fog is like a cage without a key.”

“We cannot change anything unless we accept it.”

“One of the best feelings is finding someone who really gets you. A person who lets you be vulnerable and honest. The kind of person who encourages you to push past your flaws because they accept you as you are. Someone who never tells you that you’re too much of this and too little of that. Because to them you’re just enough of everything they love.”

“Keep the ones who heard you when you never said a word.”

“If you ignore your feelings they will get your attention in other ways.”

“A healthy relationship is where two independent people just make a deal that they will help the other person be the best version of themselves.”

“One day it just clicks… You realise what is important and what isn’t, you learn to care less about what other people think of you and care more about what you think of yourself. You realise how far you have come and you remember thinking that things were such a mess they’d never recover and then you smile. You smile because you’re truly proud of the person you have fought to become.”