#book lines

I bought this book because it was set in Barcelona. I imagined myself reading it there, but I never did. For a long time, I didn't even open it—partly becuase life got in the way, partly because I assumed it would be boring. Even now, I don't think it's an extraordinary book. And yet, I found myself highlighting and annotating page after page.

Every line I marked pulled me back to familiar pain. The first time I lost my mother—that strange realization that someone you speak to every day can suddenly be gone. Growing up with just my dad, then losing him to cancer too. And, living alone now. The book reminded me that death doesn't happen once; it arrives and stays, plitting life into before and after, and never fully leaving.

It also brought back the ache of a heartbreakOne line felt uncomfortably familiar:the kind that follows a breakup, when the person who knew all your stories and ways chooses to walk away. THe book understands that death and heartbreak overlap. They pile up, happen at the same time, while the world keeps asking, "how you're doing?," if that question still makes sense.

One line felt uncomfortably familiar:

"My body has become an armoured shell capable of attacking the trenches to keep advancing, but with the end of each war, I discover small internal wounds weakening me, confirming my resistance is waning. I wonder how long this war will last and how long will I be standing."

It mirrored th experience of surviving one loss after another—pushing forward, only to realize later how much each battle quietly took from me.

Grief, I realized, is deeply personal. Pain can't be compared ore measured. Advice, even when well-intentioned, often misses the point because no one else lives inside my life. My pain is mine, and it doesn't need explanation or correction.

“It was as if I’d been standing on the edge of a cliff my whole life, and finally, after meeting Jeremy, I felt confident enough to jump. Because—for the first time in my life—I felt confident that I wouldn’t land. I would keep flying.”