Oh, pickle.

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.

If you believe that every Muslim supports ISIS and groups like it, then you should also believe that all Christians support the Klu Klux Klan and the Westboro Baptist Church and Scott Lively. You should believe that all white people support actions like the Charleston Shooting. You should believe every man celebrates the anniversary of the École Polytechnique Massacre. And so on, across any group or affiliation you might be able to name.   If you don’t believe all of these things, but somehow manage to believe that more than a billion people are somehow sympathetic to, and responsible for the actions of, a cadre of murderous fundamentalists (“fundamentalist” in this case, as in so many cases with that term, not accurately representing the fundamentals of the religion it claims to represent), then the problem is you, not 1.2 billion Muslims.

There’s no deadline on confirming who you are. Who you are today is not who you are tomorrow. Think about who you were 5 years ago, regardless of identity, just personality-wise, you’re so different from who you were 5 years ago, let alone maybe 5 days ago. You don’t have to be stuck in this box of who you are and you’re always in control of how you feel and how you identify. And even if you’re 50, even if you’re 70, even if you’re 10, whatever you feel now does not have to be the end all of who you are tomorrow.