Cyrus Parker Quotes

better late than never
the problem with me has always been that I waste too much time looking for the validation of others, when the only validation I needed was my own. I might not be all the way there yet, but one day, I will be. And so will you.

In every book I read, I see you. I see you in every heroine who isn't afraid to stand up and say whatever's on her mind. I see you in every heroine who wears the term "unlikable" like a badge of honor. I see you in every heroine who's had to endure the unimaginable, yet still finds the strength to fight another day. I see you in every heroine who's had to carry a revolution she never asked to be a part of in the first place.
- You are the strongest person I know.

Never let the bad days make you forget that the good ones are waiting for you across the horizon, just as you are waiting for them.

the only one
with you, there is no pretending. you see me like nobody sees me. you know me like nobody knows me. you accept me like nobody accepts me.

You believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. You taught me how to love again when I had lost all hope. You showed me how to be a person I could finally be proud of. If not for you, I would not be the person I am today. If not for you, I would not be.
- For that, I thank you.

uncaged
it's easy to push people away to retreat into yourself to give only the bare minimum. it's much harder to take that risk to splay open your chest to peel each rib back one by one and bare your heart and soul to a world that might not handle them with the care they deserve. but when you find a person whose mind complements yours, you'll see the reward was well worth the risk.

One look into those honest eyes, and I knew I could tear myself apart before you, bare every last piece of this broken soul. and there would be no judgement. Only understanding.

smokey eye eyeliner as defiance. eyeliner as a statement, a declaration, a fuck you to a society that shames people for expressing themselves the way they feel the most at home, the same society that labels everything from toys to toothbrushes "boy" and "girl" rather than letting individuals cultivate their own identities. eyeliner as a call to arms. eyeliner as a weapon, a raised fist, a shield from judgmental expressions and microaggressions disguised as questions, from the insults and slurs shot out of car windows like bullets in a drive-by because i dare exist in a way they don't and refuse to understand.

the world may reject you today, but with time comes understanding. give it that time, but do not be silent. let every footstep, every word, and every breath be an act of revolution. the world might not be ready for you, but that doesn't mean you're not ready to create the tomorrow you deserve.

take
sometimes, being a little selfish is the biggest act of self-love we can give ourselves. expanse you are not just a person, and you don't simply exist. you are a culmination of everything you've ever seen and heard, loved and hated, feared and not. you are the sum of every action and reaction, failure and success, mistake and apology, every interaction with another, like and unlike yourself. we are all complex beings with our own stories and our own perspectives. and we all deserve to love and be loved just the same.

let's build
bookshelves together
and fill them
with our story.

- ours will always be my favorite.

Tell me everything. Take the weight off your shoulders, and let me carry it on mine. Because you've been burdened by it for far too long.
-rest easy.

earthquake
society has a way of bending you until you break, no matter how strong you think you are or how hard you try to fight back. it will try to fold you on top of yourself and shape you into something new - something prettier, smaller, less you and more them. but it doesn't realize that by doing so, it's creating a warrior out of you, one strong enough to sink mountains and raise tides. strong enough to reach inside the earth and shake it to its very core. strong enough to leave your mark on what's tried to leave its mark on you.

Your self-destruction wasn't something I could stand by and watch, even at a distance. I've watched people I love suffer endlessly until the only thing left for them to do was die, and although I was being every bit as selfish as I was selfless,I wanted you to do this for yourself. Not for me, because I knew you were worth it and I needed you to know that too.
- I'm not giving up on you.

I could fall 1,000 times and still consider myself the luckiest person in the universe, because I know every single time I do, it'll be your hands reaching for mine, helping me back to my feet.

i will not fit myself into a box to meet your expectations. i will not twist myself into a knot to earn your appreciation. the moon's resistance the sun tells the moon that her place is at night with the stars, but still, she hangs defiantly in the midafternoon sky, refusing to have her place dictated by another's expectations.

we'll pretend you regret what you did
we'll pretend i'm not damaged goods

misplaced
i was a piece of a puzzle lost in the box of another. no matter where you tried to put me, which way you tried to turn me, there wasn't a place for me in the big picture, and i got tired of trying to fit into places i didn't belong.

I look out the backseat window of the car filled with all of my best friends and rest my eyes on the moon, and I wonder: how can it be that the moon is surrounded by all of the stars in the nighttime sky, and yet it still looks so isolated from the rest of the universe around it?
- lonely ≠ alone

I travel light-years in keystrokes

Every lost color returned, one by one by one like cherry blossoms bursting to life in the spring, brighter and more vivid than ever before.
- pleasantville ii