How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly's Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life

by Heather Havrilesky

You’ve been handed a big challenge, but one that’s going to help you to grow up and take care of yourself and connect honestly with other people. You don’t have to love this challenge right now. You can cry every day and feel terrible about it. But this challenge wasn’t meant to topple everything else you’re doing that’s good in your life. This challenge fits right in with your exercising and eating healthier and traveling and connecting with friends and taking care of yourself. This is you, facing whatever comes next while also acknowledging that you’ve been thrown for a loop. In the months after my dad’s death, I could see that I would have to become a new kind of person in order to survive. I felt terrible, of course, but you can feel terrible and also feel fully alive. You can feel crushed and also feel inspired and hopeful. In your darkest moments, look for some hope. It’s there.