What You Wish For

by Katherine Center

“It’s one of the secrets to life that no one ever tells you. Joy cures everything.”

“Joy is an antidote to fear. To anger. To boredom. To sorrow.”

“But you can’t just decide to feel joyful.” “True. But you can decide to do something joyful.”

“It’s a deliberate kind of joy. It’s a conscious kind of joy. It’s joy on purpose.”

The world keeps hanging on to this idea that love is for the gullible. But nothing could be more wrong. Love is only for the brave.

Love makes you better because it’s hard. Taking risks makes you better because it’s terrifying. That’s how it works. You’ll never get anything that matters without earning it. And even what you get”—she lifted her chin in defiance—“you won’t get to keep. Joy is fleeting. Nothing lasts. That’s exactly what courage is. Knowing all that going in—and going in anyway.”