After You (Me Before You, #2)

by Jojo Moyes

Too many people follow their own happiness without a thought for the damage they leave in their wake.

‘You don’t have to let that one thing be the thing that defines you.’”

Why had I wasted so much time worrying about what was not important?

I viewed them as if I were on the outside of something looking in. I laughed at their jokes, winced internally at their tales of inappropriate tears or misjudged comments. But what became clear as I sat on my plastic chair and drank my instant coffee was that I had somehow found myself on the other side. I had crossed a bridge. Their struggle was no longer my struggle.

“And what we learn through sharing our memories and our sadness and our little victories with one another is that it’s okay to feel sad. Or lost. Or angry. It’s okay to feel a whole host of things that other people might not understand, and often for a long time. Everyone has his or her own journey. We don’t judge.”