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Our lives are struggles, to bear witness, to speak out, to stand for something which we believe is worth standing for.

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Contrast is a beautiful thing. Living doesn’t consist of straight lines and perfect 90-degree angles. No, living has sharp corners, steep drops and dark tunnels. Pain and joy can mean you’re living. Not just existing.

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That silent gap of “nothing” you feel between your thoughts and the outside world is the first step in setting your brain free to be creative.

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1. There are absolutely no rules
2. Whenever someone gives you a list of rules, always throw out Rule #1.

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Many a times creative souls have misguidedly romanticized mental illness – Adult critics who have declared Sylvia Plath’s poetry genius owing to her mental affliction and personal tragedies, young writers unable to separate the ‘coolness’ of Bukowski’s alcoholic crutch from his literary talents.

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How you gonna bootycall
all this magic?
All this fire and brimstone?

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Life without you isn’t much of a life at all. It feels blurry and on pause and I can never taste my favorite foods.

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I read the last paragraph of my favorite book. I remind myself that some things I love end. And that’s okay.

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I’m sick of trying to do the logical thing when it comes to love. Watching us round the same track, calculating chances that this whole thing will blow up in our faces.

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In between pressing his lips against my skin, he says, “Not everyone gets you like I do,” but this time, it doesn’t really feel like romance. It feels a bit like a threat. My stomach tightens and I count back all the times he’s told me to relax.