What's Left of Me

by Kristen Granata

Being a mom means I’m guaranteed to fuck up at least once a day.”

“I’m not ready to lose you to my ghosts yet.

two lost souls can start over and heal each other.

She’s good and pure. An angel without the wings.

“You’ve convinced yourself that you don’t deserve to be happy. It’s hard to believe in the realization that you do.

I can see the shame and sorrow. You wear it like a backpack full of bricks, letting it weigh you down. But you don’t belong in hell.

“Please don’t make me wait until the end of the night to kiss you.”

“I want you to show me all the places you’ve ever been hurt, Callie. I want to erase every mark he’s ever left on you, and I’m going to replace the old memories with a new one.”

I’m finally the person I want to be. I say what I feel, I do what makes me happy, and I’m surrounded by loving and supportive people.

She tried to replace the debilitating feeling with something else, while I looked to bury it.

“It’s funny how life works out. You stay in bad situations for so long, convincing yourself that it’s the right thing to do. You lie to the people you love in order to hide the truth from them, but you hide the truth from yourself too. I don’t know why. I don’t know what makes us think we deserve to be in those messed-up situations. Maybe it’s the way we were raised. Maybe we don’t have enough self-worth. Or maybe we need to go through those tough times in order to get to the good that’s coming.”

reminder of how powerful women can be when we support each other.

The journey was difficult, but I’d go through it all again if it meant I’d end up exactly where I am today.

“We can’t leave Maverick out there too long or else he’ll start eating his own turds.” I scoff. “He doesn’t do that anymore!” “Once a shit-eater, always a shit-eater.”

“You guys aren’t cool just because you fist bump.”

The kid’s a little con artist. He knows how to crumble my resolve.