Forever is the Worst Long Time

by Camille Pagán

In your twenties, it’s easy to think most of your better days are still up ahead. But sometime around the point at which you find yourself in a face-off with forty, time does a peculiar thing and unfolds at once, almost like a map, so that while you can see that you are no longer truly young and you are not yet old, it’s quite clear that you will be very soon—if you’re lucky.

Sometimes it’s as if we already know everything is about to change, and we can’t wait another moment to begin.

save for a few letters, the difference between love and loss was so slight it was almost impossible to perceive.

Once you love someone all the way, you love them forever. That’s just how it goes.”

suspect that there’s no such thing as absolute truth. Every event is different to those who have lived it, those who have witnessed it, and those who only later read of it.