Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.

“But remember always that the true self is never a fixed thing…the true self is always in motion like music, a river of life, changing, moving, failing, suffering, learning, shining. That is why you must freely and recklessly make new mistakes — in writing or in life — and do not fret about them but pass on and write more.”

You are allowed to have ALL the feelings. You are allowed to take up ALL the space. You’re allowed to be everything that you are & then some. The right people — your people — will love you even more when they see how expansive your life becomes when you give yourself that space.

The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. These things are your becoming.