Hum If You Don't Know the Words

by Bianca Marais

Also books had always helped me make sense of the world and given me answers when I needed them.

is never a good omen when the sight of your face can make a dozen voices die within their throats.

grief is a city all of its own, built high on a hill and surrounded by stone walls. It is a fortress that you will inhabit for the rest of your life, walking its dead-end roads forever. The trick is to stop trying to escape and, instead, to make yourself at home.

“Good people come in all different colors and speak many different languages, bad people too. And sometimes good people do bad things, and sometimes bad things are the only things people know how to do because they do not know any better. One day you will see that for yourself.”

want her to understand that two men can be in the exact same place doing the exact same things while wearing the exact same clothes and yet they can still be worlds apart.

“You can’t spend your life running away from bullies because bullies are everywhere. Sometimes you have to stand your ground and face your fears rather than trying to outrun them.”