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Kindle Notes & Highlights
I splashed water on my face and searched the mirror for a reason why he’d deliberately hurt me.
What if I gave up now and became a bystander in my own life? What if I didn’t?
“There are students fighting the only way they know how. That’s showing up and being proud of who they are. People are gonna tell you what you can’t do in this life. But there is one thing they can’t ever stop you from doing, and that’s trying. The best revenge is believing in yourself. Don’t let them take that away from you.”
These posters and running for Lion King—they were reminders we were here, no matter the lengths they would go to erase us. The school was threatened by me, by what I was doing. You used to be a quiet student, York had told me that day, and now I’d have to show him how loud I could get.
But all I could recall was how Jackson thanked me, that same smile that wouldn’t leave my mind, the way he’d said I’d made him feel like he deserved to stand up for himself—and that was why all this mattered.
There’s no perfect way to respond to an imperfect system. Getting angry with you, it’s exactly what HVHS wants. They’d rather we fight each other—or ourselves—than them.”
“I can’t do this alone anymore,” I said finally, recalling what Ms. Dion had said. “That video of York has lit a fire, and I want to fan the flames. It’s about Jackson and the book bans and the attacks on student rights. But I need both of you. It’s our fight.”
“It’s obvious they want to erase us,” Lucas said with finality. “We can’t accept it. We have to take Bett down before he takes us down.”
Life might’ve been easier when all we had to do was hide. But this, all three of us teary-eyed with giggles and existing in plain sight, that was worth fighting for.
“Weight isn’t a bad thing! It doesn’t change your value, you hear me? Because you’re Ezra Hayes. Period. That’s all that matters, not what you think is wrong with you. Who you are will always be enough.”
“Listen to me, that way of thinking is harmful. You don’t have to lose weight to keep someone’s interest. If they do like you, then they like all of you without restrictions. Understand?”
The people in power were keeping us from having an identity, prioritizing the so-called good students, not giving a damn how the rest of us felt, robbing us of what voice we had.
How our lungs ached to just breathe and exist. How much we had to fight to keep our heads above the surface.
The need to breathe and exist, the need to prove no one was allowed to treat us this way, the need to hold all the twisted school board members, and administrators, and politicians accountable for their actions.
They’d removed books, stopped us from being seen in the promenade, gaslighted us into believing we were nothing. If we gave up now, that’s exactly what we’d become.
All the ways we’d been forced to hide parts of ourselves—only speaking up behind anonymous accounts and making hushed promises to get out of this small town—kept us isolated. That was the real motive behind Watch What You Say. Behind the growing number of state legislations across the South. If they erased us, they kept us alone.
having to fight every day to be a fucking human being with thoughts and feelings and an identity—all of it came crashing down with the resounding You are what this world needs. I was too tired to keep hiding.
fighting for what was right, telling our story—all
That we’re valid. That queer students matter, and they can’t pretend we don’t exist.”
“We shouldn’t have to keep fighting this. It isn’t fair. None of this is fair.”
“Fighting for what’s right is never stupid.
Our voices had been silenced before we’d learned how to speak, our feelings buried as we learned to tolerate it.
“Watch What You Say has deliberately tried to invalidate our identities.”
When you stand up for what’s right, there will be people who try to make you sit down. You have to keep getting right back up.”
I hope you continue to believe in yourself no matter the hate people spew, no matter how many times they tell you to sit down when you try to take a stand, no matter how hard the fight becomes. It is the best revenge, after all.
