The Beginning of Everything

by Robyn Schneider

I still think that everyone’s life, no matter how unremarkable, has a singular tragic encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. That moment is the catalyst—the first step in the equation. But knowing the first step will get you nowhere—it’s what comes after that determines the result.

Words could betray you if you chose the wrong ones, or mean less if you used too many.

‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do/With your one wild and precious life?’”

As always, she left me wanting more, and dreaming of what it would be like if I ever got it.

She tasted like buried treasure and swing sets and coffee. She tasted the way fireworks felt, like something you could get close to but never really have just for yourself.

We’re all prisoners. Wait no—we’re living tragedies, just passing time till our funerals.”

Oscar Wilde once said that to live is the rarest thing in the world, because most people just exist, and that’s all. I don’t know if he’s right, but I do know that I spent a long time existing, and now, I intend to live.