Natalie Audelo

There’s a tremendous friction that arises when you don’t allow yourself to do what you really want to do with your life. You make a lot of halfway decisions to negotiate your competing priorities: what you want, and what you want to want.

I have also come to understand that trying to fit into society’s understanding of a “good girl” is a trap, the same way that the “model minority” and the “good gay” and the “good fatty” are all traps. Even when you succeed at it you lose, because these roles are all ultimately means of containment: of circumscribing power by putting exacting, contr... See more

"You won't always get what you strive for, but you will definitely get what you settle for. You won't magically outperform your standards."

But trusting the metaphor extends beyond writing to trusting the signs we are given about how to live our lives. If I can’t stop laughing every time I get to gallop an Icelandic horse across a meadow, this means I should ride Icelandic horses absolutely as much as possible. If I feel small and shamed every time I get together with a particular frie... See more