Definitely Better Now

by Ava Robinson

I was terrible at speaking from the heart. My heart was shy. It didn’t like crowds.

Alcoholism is a family disease

“I guess that’s the part I struggle with,” Diane said. “There are parts of who I was when I was drinking that I liked. I want to be as funny as I was. I want to be as spontaneous as I was. I don’t want to drink, but I wish I could keep everything else the same, you know?” “No,” I said, the force of my voice surprising us both. “I don’t want to have anything to do with who I was before.”

I didn’t want that, either. I didn’t want an infinite number of weekends with Netflix, library books, and dinners cooked for one.

It was like the saying One is too many, and a thousand is never enough. That saying was about drinks, not broken rules, but I was sure it could be applied to both.

Emma: *thumbs up* Mitchell: Did you type out thumbs up instead of doing the emoji? Emma: yes that’s how the kids do it. Mitchell: Lol okay. *Thumbs up*

Men respected other men’s claims on a woman infinitely more than they respected a woman’s decision not to sleep with them.

each morsel of information spreading like a dandelion on the wind.

I didn’t want to be famous or rich or important, I just wanted to be able to feel my skin against my body and not want to tear it off.

“You can be nostalgic for things you haven’t lived through. As long as it speaks to an essential part of you.”

If I only have so many breaths, I want to take each one with intention.”