Hate List

by Jennifer Brown

Because who you are is supposed to be the easiest question in the world to answer, right? Only for me it hadn’t been easy for a very long time. Maybe it never was.

Because not having a clue who you are hurts way too much. And one thing I did know for sure: I was tired of hurting.

It was kind of weird because eventually they were all so busy hating each other, they forgot about hating me.

I learned to tamp down the anger, to force it to the back of my mind, hoping that it would just fizzle out, go away. I learned to pretend it was already gone.

partly because of the irony. It weighs a ton. In this office, anything can fly. No matter what is weighing it down. Even wooden balloons. Cool, huh?”

“Life isn’t fair. A fair’s a place where you eat corn dogs and ride the Ferris wheel.”

“Just like there’s always time for pain, there’s always time for healing. Of course there is.”

You may not have pulled the trigger, but you helped cause the tragedy.”

I saw everyone, a shifting sea of discomfort and sadness, each person carrying his own pain, each telling

her own stories, no story more or less tragic or triumphant than any other.