The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.

“Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve.”

Then, I turned around and walked to my room and closed my door and put my head under my pillow and let the quiet put things where they are supposed to be.

Patrick actually used to be popular before Sam bought him some good music.

I just think it’s bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girl is better than the girl actually is.

The next thing I know, I was wearing nothing but slippers and a bathing suit, which somebody painted gold. I don’t know how these things happen to me sometimes.

I like girls. I really do. Because they can think you look good in a bathing suit even when you don’t.

But because things change. And friends leave. And life doesn’t stop for anybody.

You can’t just sit there and put everybody’s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love.

So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we’ll never know most of them. But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.

And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn’t really change the fact that you have what you have. Good and bad.

So, if this does end up being my last letter, please believe that things are good with me, and even when they’re not, they will be soon enough. And I will believe the same about you. Love always, Charlie