Kim Quindlen

It’s hard for you to walk through the home decor section of any department store. Because all you want to do is climb in those fake beds and nap the shit out of them.

“Loving ourselves through the process of owning our story is the bravest thing we’ll ever do.”

I tried to figure out who my truest self was, by narrowing my entire self down to just a few basic characteristics and then trying to embody them in every situation, as if it was some kind of math problem I had just been doing wrong all along. Instead, I noticed that by doing this, I felt even more affected and unnatural than before.

Listen to movie soundtracks or instrumental music while you’re trying to get work done.

In the beginning, you’re slowly but surely falling in love with their perfume or their cologne or whatever they use for their signature scent. Three years later, you’re just trying to learn to deal with the smell of their farts.

She’s not looking for a man to sweep in and save her. She’s just looking for someone who’s going to balance her out, stand as her equal, and allow her to share the life she’s built up for herself.

You feel instantly calm around them. It doesn’t mean you can’t simultaneously feel excited or happy or giddy or aroused or inspired. But beneath all of those feelings is a strong sense of peace, safety, and serenity.

It feels so far away. Because in addition to going through the awfulness that is putting yourself out there and worrying about getting rejected and panicking when there’s two seconds of silence in your conversation during a dinner date, you still have to fall in love after you do all that stuff.

When you text someone that you’re “5 mins away” it means you’re still sitting on your couch in your sweatpants.

The guy who’s ready to settle down wants to hang out with you on a Sunday afternoon. The guy who just wants to have fun will try to meet up with you on Friday night when he’s at the bar.

“Sorry I just got your text.” No he didn’t. He saw your text a while ago. It just wasn’t a priority for him.

You feel uncomfortable a lot.

He knows that being smart and hardworking and ambitious and firm in your opinions doesn’t make you any less feminine. In fact, he’s attracted to you because of those attributes.

For one week every month, we shed our uterus lining. In more scientific terms, it means we swallow ice cream pints whole, hate on Blue Ivy, and temporarily decide that we find Josh Groban attractive.

You two understand each other so well that you don’t even have to say things out loud to know what you’re each thinking.

You’re always forced to go shopping. Even if you hate it. Because you’re the only one who will tell your friend that the pants she picked out look like someone vomited mustard.

There’s no “wait two hours to text back” guidelines that they believe they have to follow. Ambitious girls do what they want when they want, because they don’t have time for arbitrary dating rules.

This person showed up and all of the sudden you were smiling when you were grocery shopping or taking out the trash.