Brianna Wiest

We lose the mystery, the intangible but palpable reality of our existence, one that’s both elusively foreign and so comfortably, warmly home.

Being happy that someone else has failed.

What your parents didn’t give you.

Intelligence is not measured by exams, creativity not by output, desire not by action and honesty not by circumstance.

You don’t have to tell people you date that you come as a package deal. They know. And if they don’t, they will when they’re laying next to you the next morning while you’re on the phone with said best friend telling them everything that happened last night.

I don’t think love is always a huge, cataclysmal emotional event. I think sometimes it sits in front of you for a very long time until you glance over and say, oh, there you are. I don’t think it’s your saving grace. I think it’s the hand that you hold while you save yourself.

I don’t know what perfect is. I don’t know what it means to me anymore, so I won’t even pretend to know what it means to anybody else.

You shouldn’t have to wait until all the big things in your life are gone before you realize that the small things will save you.

Believe that because someone doesn’t show love the way that they do, that it simply isn’t there.

And if I want to try being a waitress for the sheer fact that I think the work that gets you knee-deep in the human experience is more important than work that pays you well, and you want to dub me an idiot for that because I don’t have to do it, then so be it.

The first kid(s) that teased them in school, and what they teased them for. Many people spend the rest of their lives trying to prove those kids wrong.

Every single day, write down a list in two columns: what brought you satisfaction and what brought you frustration. Look at the patterns. This is how you should be adjusting your routine.

We don’t know how to phase people in and out of our lives without getting attached, so sometimes, circumstances will do the phasing for us.

Some smart ass comebacks.

“Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.”

Make plans with a friend or for yourself, look up a new recipe for dinner or plan to make an old favorite, or even just promise yourself a big glass of wine when you get home. It’s something to keep you moving even as your energy slows down with the day.

Don’t go to New York and eat Sbarro’s for lunch, you feel me?

One day, you’ll have your “but I love me more” moment. And then your life will unfold like the finale of Sex & the City and you’ll be walking down a city street to “You’ve Got The Love.” I’m half joking about this.