Old Enough Quotes

“bi” meaning “two.” I needed a shirt that read bi as in horny for gender expansiveness. Maybe I could get that custom-made on Etsy.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“You make me feel like the teenager I never got to be.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“I loved nights like this, where one fun thing led into another and it felt like the universe was conspiring to show you a good time, to show you that you were worth having a good time.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“Vera,” I whispered. “I don’t think I respect men.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“I had it in middle school, with this girl Raya,” Vera replied. “It was kind of fucked up.” My shoulders tensed. I pushed a fry around in the dregs of my ketchup. “Why do you think that?” I asked. “Um, it was really intense, I think. Too intense. And the whole thing kind of blew up. It actually really hurt. I still think about her sometimes.” “I’m sorry,” I said. “Yeah.” Vera nodded. “Thanks. It’s a lot to promise, you know? That you’re gonna be in the same friendship for your whole life.” “We do that romantically, though,” Candace said. “I mean, that’s the basic idea, if you believe in marriage and stuff.” “Yeah, but that feels different,” Vera argued. “You go into a romantic relationship knowing it can completely combust and leave you wrecked. You basically sign up for that. I feel like friends don’t talk about that happening.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“I came from the land of I Want to Be Her and had no idea that was a telltale cover-up for I Want to Date Her.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“And if they knew the whole me, I doubted they would like that person.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“There's far too much focus on dysphoria, on the pain and trauma of the trans experience, and it's time to change that narrative. We should not have to probe that we are lacking joy in our gender to get the gender-affirming care that we need. We deserve care, period.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“In those days, I believed that changing my hair could change my whole life.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“How well she knew me, and how little, broke me. I couldn’t explain this to her.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“A cis boy with eyeliner who introduces himself with his pronouns is fucking bisexual catnip.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“I nodded eagerly, despite having no fucking clue what I was passionate about.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“But even though we were close, there was still something that made me feel distant from everyone else. Like if I got too close, something terrible would happen.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“If the Band-Aid was hot pink and shiny, no one would ask what was underneath.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“I wondered if it was hard to balance a whole group of friends, if you had to parse out bits of yourself to each person”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“The more I teach, the more I learn how different students, and all people, really, file information. What I mean to say is, we each have this file cabinet full of shit, but what I might file as important, another person might file as complete junk. Does that make any sense?”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“My leggings were draped over the hamper, and I could see the crotch was white and sort of flaky from dried discharge, but I grabbed them anyway and slid them on.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“A lot of me was straight back then,” I admitted. “She’s funny!” Reg clapped her hands together.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“Taylor Swift album,”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“Sometime between our conversation in the dining hall and now, I had gotten it into my head that maybe Wesley really was interested in me.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“Gay Bowling Tuesdays at the alley in town, and queer book club,”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“You have much to learn about the inner workings of the gay group dynamic.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“After Nova ghosted me over the summer, I decided I should make an effort to look gayer, so I had gotten my septum pierced in July and bought a pair of Birkenstocks.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“I inched closer to Wes’s dresser. Five rows. Nice. I touched it. Sturdy. I wondered if the drawers were easy to pull out. That was the mark of a good dresser. Everybody knew that. I just wanted to check. I grabbed hold of the knob of one of the drawers and pulled. It slid right open.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“Yeah. I don’t talk about it. Ever. Even though I know what it was. But I’m so fucking scared sometimes, that if I say it out loud, someone’s going to tell me I’m wrong. Because it was someone close to me. Someone that I liked. Had feelings for. And we were drinking. And Lara said this, like, in one of our first classes, and it just haunts me. How some people drink, and do things, with people that they have feelings for. And they don’t wake up and regret it or hate themselves and feel like they want to die. They think it’s funny. I don’t understand that.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“I didn’t admit to my mom that I had no idea how to be a part of my community, because there seemed to be a whole second step after coming out, and that was finding your people. I mean, I had cis gay male friends, I did community theater growing up, but they didn’t really feel like my community. And Nova certainly hadn’t invited me into her community, and even if she had, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be a part of it. But that night at Candace’s felt like I had inched closer to the thing that I wanted. They were just. So. Gay. Effortlessly so. Each with their own iconic style and vibe and fluent in a language that made my head spin. But unlike Nova’s elitist group of self-proclaimed Celesbians, I felt welcome here. Wanted. It was thrilling, and terrifying. It had been four months since that queer hang, and I finally looked forward to having weekend plans. Candace invited me everywhere, like Gay Bowling Tuesdays at the alley in town, and queer book club, and she binged all of Atypical with me in two nights. But even though we were close, there was still something that made me feel distant from everyone else. Like if I got too close, something terrible would happen.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“Who says no to karaoke?” “Only the worst people.”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough

“a kind of “I’m-married-to-myself” fuck-you to the patriarchy. I hated that word now, “patriarchy.” All I could think of were overpriced graphic tees and white liberal mothers on Facebook updating their status to “WE’RE STILL WITH HER” and “PANTSUIT NATION!”
― Haley Jakobson, Old Enough