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It was no wonder Robbie was an Atheist; the idea that something intelligent enough to design thinking, feeling, living creatures would then assign them unchangeable expiration dates was horrifying.
It’d be nice to have some evidence that we control our own destinies, I think.
Life would go on with or without Chloe Stephens, after all. It waited for no one. It never had.
Loss is… it’s hard. But that’s no reason to cut yourself off from the rest of the world just because you’re scared to lose someone again.”
“Harper, people are not milk cartons,” Dad sighed out. “You don’t pick and choose the ones you think will last the longest without going sour. If it feels right, you just go with it until it doesn’t feel right anymore. And sometimes when something goes wrong, it hurts. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth it in the first place.”
It’d be a lot like how coming out had been. Sharing it with other people; saying it aloud… that made it exist in a world outside of my mind. That made it real.
Sometimes your head and your heart don’t say the same thing
“Doesn’t that get exhausting?” she marveled. “Looking at every single person like some sort of risk calculation? Comparing potential enjoyment as a result of being friends versus potential pain as a result of losing the friendship? Or of losing them?”
Have you ever considered the fact that maybe the goal of life isn’t to get through it as painlessly as possible?”
“You can’t be afraid to lose everyone because then you’ll have no one, okay?” She reached out and squeezed my hand. “And if you have no one, then, like, you’ve lost everyone anyway.”
Things were different now. “Chloe Stephens, I am so glad I met you.”
Some things were worth aching for
“It’s not so bad, is it? Hoping?” she asked me. “What’s life without something to hope for?”
“Maybe there is no point. I don’t know. But we go on anyway because we have to. There are people who love and care about you. There are experiences you’re going to have that you’re going to be glad you were around for. And yes, there are going to be things that’ll tear you up on the inside and make you wish you’d never been born. That’s a part of life. But it’s not ever going to be enough to risk your life trying to prove a point.
