“If you feel that what you’ve accomplished this year has anything to do with my love and encouragement—I’m okay with that—as long as you realize I need yours just as much to reach my own potential. I don’t see it as a weakness. I see it as our strength.

It’s surreal just how much children are attuned to emotions that adults pretend to be oblivious of. They’re the ones who deserve the title of hero, living bravely, taking chances, leaping before looking, letting their emotions through—the definition of living out loud. As for adults, the more we grow, the more we seem to hide ourselves, our emotion

“It’s constantly there, but it’s archaic, turbulent, whimsical, vast, and everchanging, differentiating the days even if I’m looking out of the same window. The moon is my favorite companion.”

Serena has no idea how lucky she is to have someone willing to brave the cold to ensure she’s warm—to open the impossible pickle jar, carry the bulk of the heavy load. Little things men do to care for their women.

I have not truly lived until this moment, being in love, with her.

When I’m with Eli, it’s too much and not enough all at once.

Nat King Cole croons out about chestnuts on an open fire as the memories flood me. Everything about the setup reminds me of a time when things were much simpler—when life was so much easier to navigate. When the bulk of my life seemed like something to look forward to more than reflect on. Life-changing decisions weren’t so absolute because it felt

“Just remember when times get hard, when your problems are blinding you, that you’re on a floating planet in the middle of a vast galaxy filled with the unexplainable, and the only thing holding you to it is an invisible force you can’t see.”