I Was Told It Would Get Easier Quotes

“I was suddenly filled with sympathy for her, as I am for all young people. It's a little bit hideous, that first part of adulthood.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“For a single woman, it's all very impressive."

I took a breath. Why was there always that qualification? What if every time I commented on a man's success I said, for someone whose genitalia is dangerously housed outside of their bodies, it's a reasonable effort.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“It's the world's most wonderful and most terrible job, and if you do it well enough, you get fired.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Everyone tells you middle school is fun, and then you get there and it sucks. Then high school is going to be fun, but you get there and it both sucks and is really hard. Now, apparently, college is going to be fun, but it really seems like one more hurdle standing between me and actual happiness. Whatever that is.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“My dad managed to convey the importance of working hard in school using a subtle blend of emotional blackmail (I’m paying for the best high school in New York, don’t make me regret it) and fear (if you don’t work hard now you won’t get into a good college and you won’t get a good job and you won’t meet a nice man and you’ll end your life filled with regret and fast food). It was incredibly effective.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“They love to criticize us for being on our phones, despite the fact that their generation created the phones, marketed the phones, and are profiting from the phones. They're drug pushers making fun of the junkies, which, if you think about it, is lame AF. Besides, any day now those same junkies are taking over the street corner, so they should try to be nice.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Beauty always fades, but it lasts so much longer if you lay a thick layer of intelligence and integrity underneath it.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“The parents are the worst! They completely lose their minds, like academic bridezillas, focused on getting their precious mini-me into college and never for a minute thinking about what happens when the poor bastards actually get there, not to mention when they get out! God forbid they learn to fend for themselves or trust their own judgment or fail and struggle and succeed on their own terms. No! Everything has to be smoothed out and landscaped for Tiffany and Kody and Jasmine and Joshua, and if regular people get run over in the process, then that's how the cookie crumbles!”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“snag a chocolate croissant, the silver medal of pastries. I got a cup of tea, too, because I had what Mom calls an emotional hangover from the previous evening. I’m sure you’ve had one: Everything is a little bit loud, you seem to have lost a few layers of skin, and tears are a distinct possibility. I think Mom has one, too; she and I have barely spoken, but not in an unfriendly way. Just in a not-speaking way that could go either way any second. Mom taught me that emotional hangovers need four things to dissipate: caffeine, sugar, space, and time.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“I'd learned early on in my career that the simplest way to succeed at work was to talk like a man, which means removing all warmth, doubt, and softness from every sentence. Try it; it's surprisingly difficult.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Despite Frances’s many wonderful qualities, she is a terrible texter. She never sends one text if four are possible. She types, she hits send, she thinks of something else and sends that, and then she thinks of yet another thing and sends that. I’d asked her why she didn’t simply wait to hit send until all her thinking was done, and she was genuinely surprised and said her brain didn’t move on to the next thought until the first one had been sent. But as I’ve already noted, she makes up for it elsewhere.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Emily turned to me. “You’re not happy at work. You’re not following a passion.” I wondered if faking a stroke was an option, as there was nothing I wanted to do less than have this conversation again. “I like my work,” I said. “I get to help people, it’s challenging.” “But are you passionate?” I shrugged. “I was passionate about things when I was your age, and working is easier when you love what you do, but even something you love contains hours and days of repetition and grind. It’s only on the internet that everything is easy.” Emily looked at Cassidy. “See what I mean? Work is not life. Work is how you pay for food. You should ask us the kind of life we want to live instead.” She started counting on her fingers. “I want a job I can forget at the end of the day, where I don’t work weekends, where I make enough money to live on my own and have a garden. Wouldn’t it be better to start there? There must be hundreds of jobs like that. Work isn’t supposed to be your life . . . Your life is supposed to be your life.” She fell silent. Then she said, “I don’t know. Maybe I’m hungry.” She got up and went to get breakfast.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“No, I have a plan and I’m sticking to it. Quitting notwithstanding.” Helen was skeptical. “Describe your supposed plan.” I leaned back in my chair and counted off on my fingers. “First, get accepted to the California bar, check; move to LA, check; get a good job; put Emily in an excellent elementary school; get a reliable babysitter; work my ass off to pay for the school and the babysitter; get Emily into Westminster; make partner so I can afford Westminster; get Emily through middle and high school without her getting arrested, pregnant, or addicted to methamphetamines; get her into a good college; get promoted so I can afford the good college; keep working my ass off to pay for the whole four years; help her get a good job; then go out into the backyard, dig myself a big hole, and sit in it.” “Wow,” said Helen. “That’s quite a detailed plan.” “Yup. You know me, I like to achieve my goals.” “When did you come up with that plan?” “When the second line appeared on the pregnancy test.” “And you haven’t deviated from your plan for the last seventeen years?” I shook my head. “Jesus, Jess, what happened to you? When we were in college you were stubborn, sure, and yes, you liked a goal, but since when did simply sticking to a plan become the goal?”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. —Martin Buber”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Regret is one of those emotions that outpunches reality: Even if you 100 percent could not have done things differently, it still pops up and takes a jab.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“I wanted that November feeling, you know, when you suddenly remember the holidays are coming and your tummy gets all excited and it's like being seven again.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“... and all of them are children of parents that pressure the shit out of them to be the best and then all of a sudden you don't get into your first choice, or your second choice, or your safety, and you end up going to community college and discovering that doesn't really make any difference! It's what you do with it that matters! It's all the goddamn same!!”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Sometimes limits are their own form of freedom.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“That’s the thing with data; if you pull any graph out far enough, the peaks and troughs flatten out. Live long enough and life averages out.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“They love to criticize us for being on our phones, despite the fact that their generation created the phones, marketed the phones, and are profiting from the phones.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Her power lies in making you feel like the most amusing, important person in the room.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“The Gift of Fear”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“I’m particularly good at knowing something is probably the wrong thing to say, biting my tongue for a while until the silence becomes really tense, then blurting it out anyway. The timing is like putting spin on a baseball, it adds an exciting layer of unpredictability.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“She worked in advertising for many years, which is how she learned to write fiction.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“You don’t understand me,” said Chris. “All the other mothers said yes,” said Dani. “You’re the worst mother in the world.” “You’ve ruined my life.” “I’m never going to forgive you.” “I hate you.” I took another big sip. “And my favorite, I didn’t ask to be born. Thrown in the face of parents since the dawn of time, and still number one around the globe.” Chris took the vape pen from Dani and inhaled deeply. “They’re so fucking immature.” He exhaled. “Mind you, we’re no better. I say the same shit back to them my mother said to me: You treat this place like a hotel.” “Would it kill you to say thank you?” “Are you going out dressed like that?” “In my day, music had a melody.” “You shouldn’t care what other people think about you.” “You’re an ungrateful bitch with pores the size of Poughkeepsie.” There was a pause as we both turned to Dani, who took another deep drag and exhaled. “Only me then?” She shrugged. “Oh well.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Everyone wants to get into a “name” school, one that when you tell people you got in, they make that face, the face that says, You won the game, you’re set for life. Of course, only very few get in, which makes those schools even more special. They’re like the girl who turns everyone down, so everyone wants to date her and no one ever discovers she’s completely boring.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“We think he’s developed food-specific echolocation.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“I raised my finger. “My client is done answering questions, Mr. Feld. And besides, she doesn’t even know if she wants to go to college.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Agent Feld looked surprised. “To Starbucks.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier

“Yes,” she said, “and you are?” “I’m Agent Feld, and this is my colleague Agent Larsson. We’re from the FBI.” He showed his badge; all of us were riveted.”
― Abbi Waxman, I Was Told It Would Get Easier