The Best Thing

by Mariana Zapata

He was just a reminder that appearances were only skin deep. Beautiful people were good. They didn’t do the kinds of things that he had.

I was not going to waste my life being pissed off at someone. I had better shit to do.

People didn’t give enough credit to what not giving a fuck could do for you. It was freedom.

“It’s easy to say things. It’s not as easy to do them.”

When life throws bad shit at you, you dodge it and throw whatever you can right back.

I definitely shouldn’t have laughed either, but apparently, I was going to be that mom one day who laughed when her kids did bad things and then struggled to be serious. I really was.

Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. One of my coaches had told me once that those were the most pointless set of words in the world. But you learn to live with them, you learn from them, or you let them weigh you down for life.

It changes the way you see things and people when you get teased for being yourself, like you’ve got some other choice in the matter.

I wondered what it would be like to have someone hold my hand and smile at me and for me to be there to do the same for them in return. To have an… extra special friend that was only mine. To have a… partner.

“We outgrow clothes the same way we outgrow people, Len. We change inside the same way we do outside.”

Do what you have to do to be happy, okay? No one else is going to do it for you.” Do what you have to do to be happy.