I’m silent because he needs me to be, and because sometimes there’s nothing to say. Sometimes there’s only quiet comfort to give, time and space to hold for pain that reassuring words and paltry solutions can’t touch.

’Because I believe we all deserve the chance to be seen for who we are in our present, not for who we’ve been in our past. Because I believe that while you can’t rewrite life’s previous chapters, you have every present moment to do something new, something better, and I hold on to hope that anyone who wants to can shape their life into a story they’re proud of.’

I hate feeling the dam break inside me, that loss of control that was so familiar as a teen, the flood of emotions so intense, I was terrified I’d drown in them.

'[…] You've given me shit when I deserved it, grace when I didn't. You've seen parts of me that no one else ever has, and not only did you stick with me anyway, you saw possibility in me – you believed in me when you had no reason to.'