your soul shall never hunger

“What do you do when you’re stressed?”

- Fight my enemies, they need to know who’s boss🤺👊💪💥

- Go underwater or swim, the ocean always calms me down 😌🌊💧🐟💦

- StrEsSed?? I don’t Get stressed I’m too smart and intelligent to get stressed I use my massive brain and super skills to think my way out of any problem my brain is so wrinkly I can’t even begin to fathom to concept of stress I’m so smart —

- Go to the metal shop and make something cool and creative because I’m better with my hands than my thoughts

My Camp Half Blood shirt is in my memory chest, stained with acrylic paint from making my own camp bead necklace, with blue food dye and the biggest dreams a middle-schooler could possible hold.

I saw myself in Annabeth, a neurodivergent girl who relied on intelligence over her peers because she had been let down so many times. I now sit at the end of my first semester of graduate school, overcoming academic and personal challenges I never imagined facing.

I cried when Nico came out, and I didn’t even know why at the time, I just knew it made me ache for something I didn’t even know about myself yet. Ten years later, I am confident in my queerness with a passion that burns so bright.

I found my family in characters that grew up with me; I learned to be my own hero in those pages.

For all its struggles, all its gods and monsters, all its fear and triumph and uphill battles, the world did not end when I was twelve.