The Realm of Possibility

by David Levithan

these things let us know how we fit with each other, even if we aren’t sure how we fit with everybody else.

having someone think of me that way was like discovering a new window in the room i’d lived in all my life.

you ask me what I’m looking for, and I outline you. you don’t recognize the shape,

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought less of it, and the more I thought less of it, the more she thought less of me. And I began to think less of her for thinking less of me.

He is in his own world, and while that world is very private, it’s also not very big.

But there is also something beautiful in his trying.

the unearned comfort of you.

I write YOU ARE HAPPY EVEN IF YOU ARE AFRAID TO ADMIT IT. And it makes sense. Because how many times have I heard everyone complaining and complaining and complaining? As if sitting back and acknowledging that things aren’t all that bad is somehow wrong. Then I write YOU ARE FOOLISH IN YOUR UNHAPPINESS.

The word PLEASE means something to us all. We are all so damn insecure.

But you are thousands of people away.

she didn’t have any more answers than I did. She just knew how to raise the questions.

Getting what you want is just as difficult as not getting what you want. Because then you have to figure out what to do with it instead of figuring out what to do without it.

Enrapture me with some possibilities

I am struck by how precarious it all is. How the things that hold us are only as strong as the faith we have in them—

Here’s what I know about the realm of possibility— it is always expanding, it is never what you think it is.

When everybody knows you, it is easy to think that nobody will ever really know you.

I had spent all of my time listening, learning the longings we all have in common. I never took the time to hear them in myself until I heard them speaking to him.

You think you know your possibilities. Then other people come into your life and suddenly there are so many more.