Chapter 42. Falling in Love with Learning
Chapter 43. Fewer Expectations, Fewer Disappointments
Chapter 44. Fitting in Is a Pointless Activity
Chapter 45. Ghostbusters
Chapter 46. You Can’t Save ’em All
Chapter 47. It Hurts to Care Sometimes
Chapter 48. Which Emotions Are You Feeding?
Chapter 49. You Can’t Protect Your Bubble
Chapter 50. You Have to Do What’s Best for You
Chapter 51. The Religion of “Want”
Chapter 52. Don’t Let Someone Else Write Your Story
Chapter 53. Depending on Luck Is for Suckers
Chapter 54. I Met This Girl Once …
Chapter 55. Don’t Know Yourself, Can’t Be Yourself
Chapter 56. Oh Man, How Scary It Is to Ask for Help
Chapter 57. Are You Happy?
Chapter 58. Regrets Are Stupid
Chapter 59. Nobody Fits In
Chapter 60. All My Mothers
Chapter 61. Only Boring People Get Bored
Chapter 62. One Promise of Life Is that It’s Going to End
Chapter 63. Love Is a Gift Not a Loan
Chapter 64. Self-Pity Is Self-Sabotage
Chapter 65. Worms of Validation
Chapter 66. Which Way Is Your Spiral Headed?
Chapter 67. How Do Others See You?
Chapter 68. You Decide Your Worth
Chapter 69. The Storm Is in Your Mind, Not in Your Life
Chapter 70. Put That Heart on a Leash
Chapter 71. Are You in It to Give or Receive?
Chapter 72. Fight!
Chapter 73. You Need to Forgive
Chapter 74. Labels Are Dehumanizing
Chapter 75. Celebrate Your Scars
Chapter 76. Validation Is a Helluva Drug
Chapter 77. Fake It ’til You Make It
Chapter 78. Baby Steps Add Up
Chapter 79. You Only Have So Much Time
Chapter 80. Don’t Infect Yourself with Negativity
Chapter 81. Words Are Weapons, If You Allow Them to Be
Chapter 82. You Are a Work of Art in Progress
Chapter 83. Losing a Piece of Ourselves
Chapter 84. Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself
Chapter 85. What’s Right and Wrong?
Chapter 86. Embrace Your Challenges
Chapter 87. How Rarely They Think of Us
Chapter 88. Love and Logic Won’t Hold Hands
Chapter 89. Smile to Feel It or Conceal It?
Chapter 90. Killing Expectations Births Happiness
Chapter 91. What’s Taking Up Space in Your Life?
Chapter 92. Living the Width of Your Life
Chapter 93. The More Love You Give, the More You Get?
Chapter 94. The Only Constant
Chapter 95. No Minimums on Appreciation
Chapter 96. Who Holds the Key to Your Happiness?
Chapter 97. Starting Is the Hardest Part
Chapter 98. Don’t Hold Yourself Back
Chapter 99. Happiness Is Not a Place
Chapter 100. Some Folks Are Addicted to Misery
Chapter 101. The Most Important Chapter in This Book
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Publisher
Have you ever told a six-year-old to put on their boots and snowsuit? Well, they put on the boots first and then struggle to get the snowsuit over them. When I was an elementary school teacher, I quickly realized it wasn’t always what I said to them, it was how I said it. Kids are empty vessels and sponges, and they soak in so much consciously and unconsciously, until it’s absorbed as “how things should be.” As we get older, this doesn’t change much: we continue to soak in messages, often without realizing it.
We stick to a script that hasn’t been edited in decades, and we serve as both prisoner and guard to the status quo. The thing with the script is that it comes with some big promises, both spoken
