Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up

by Naya Rivera

Josey is my greatest success, and I will never do any better than him.

Your life doesn’t have to be perfect for you to be proud. In fact, I think it’s the opposite: the more imperfect your life has been, the prouder you should be, because it means you’ve come that much further, and also probably had a lot more fun along the way.

In retrospect, it’s amazing my mother didn’t get picked up on suspicion of kidnapping.

I plan to live a long time, and I want each stage of my life to get progressively more fancy.

Being happy with how we look is just something that a lot of us struggle with,

If you’re not having any fun now and saving everything for tomorrow, well, hello: you could die tomorrow!

when the people who love you the most and know you the best tell you that you’re good at something, it’s super easy to dismiss it.

Cory’s gone, and I miss him, and that is what it is. The only consolation I have is that I’ve always trusted that God has a plan for me, and he must have had one for Cory too, even if I don’t understand it.

I think everyone should have that one relationship where you look back and ask yourself, “What the hell was I thinking?” You’ll learn something and you won’t regret it. Unless, of course, that relationship was with someone who had a sizable stash of child porn on his computer. Then, by all means, regret everything.

Sharing my story. I know I’ll be judged for it, but if I’m able to help even one girl in a similar situation feel less alone—then bring it on.

I guess that in 2016 people are just as racist and crazy as ever.

You can’t be a good friend to someone else unless you’re a good friend to yourself first,

That I don’t always get along with everyone. Having people not like you is a risk you have to take to be real, and I’ll take that over being fake any day.