Open Book

by Jessica Simpson

I didn’t think I was enough, so I overcompensated by making my life a series of experiences for everyone else.

To walk forward through my anxiety, I first had to look back to understand what pain I was running from, and what I was trying to hide.

Everyone had been telling me who to be—“edgier,” and “more mature”—whatever the word was that day, it always seemed to mean “skinnier.”

I think sometimes we get so caught up in the vessel of the work rather than what matters: the spirit that fills it.

Without alcohol, the clarity I had feared turned out to be a continual gift.

I was sober and I was feeling. This was what it felt like to be living. This is what I was running away from?

“Sometimes we are all so afraid to be honest with ourselves because we know that honesty will lead to somewhere.”