“Don't tell me you're not beautiful. You're the kind of beautiful the blind would see if we could figure out some way to give them three seconds of sight.”

“I don't want to turn any of this into poetry / but / you're so beautiful / flowers turn their heads to smell you”

“We grew up learning to cheer on the underdog because we see ourselves in them.”

“I’m not the only kidwho grew up this waysurrounded by people who used to saythat rhyme about sticks and stonesas if broken boneshurt more than the names we got calledand we got called them allso we grew up believing no onewould ever fall in love with usthat we’d be lonely foreverthat we’d never meet someoneto make us feel like the sunwas something they built for usin their tool shedso broken heart strings bled the bluesas we tried to empty ourselvesso we would feel nothingdon’t tell me that hurts less than a broken bonethat an ingrown lifeis something surgeons can cut awaythat there’s no way for it to metastasizeit does”

“And you are worth the time it takes to take the time to get to know you. We've managed to muttle through the awkward stage of i like you and you like me, but when we both finally said 'yes' life became a multiple choice test, not knowing anything we became each others best guess. and, holding your hand is less like exploration and more like discovery. lady, i don't have to study you to be sure. you're the choice i made before i knew what the other choices were”

“but I want to tell themthat all of this shitis just debrisleftover when we finally decide to smash all the things we thoughtwe used to beand if you can’t see anything beautiful about yourselfget a better mirrorlook a little closerstare a little longerbecause there’s something inside youthat made you keep tryingdespite everyone who told you to quityou built a cast around your broken heartand signed it yourselfyou signed it“they were wrong”because maybe you didn’t belong to a group or a clickmaybe they decided to pick you last for basketball or everythingmaybe you used to bring bruises and broken teethto show and tell but never toldbecause how can you hold your groundif everyone around you wants to bury you beneath ityou have to believe that they were wrongthey have to be wrong”

“and if you can’t see anything beautiful about yourselfget a better mirrorlook a little closerstare a little longerbecause there’s something inside youthat made you keep tryingdespite everyone who told you to quityou built a cast around your broken heartand signed it yourselfyou signed it“they were wrong”