When I turn 25, I should stop saying no to that glass of wine at 3pm and start saying “Hey girl hey!” I’ve heard that getting older is a bitch and one must have several glasses of wine a day just to get through it. Being casually day drunk in your mid-twenties doesn’t hold such a stigma as it does when you’re, say, 24. You go from being a potential alcoholic who everyone is silently judging to being someone who just gets it.
Ryan O’Connell, “Things You Must Stop Doing When You Turn 25”
Which is why I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone in New York should stop dating. Because, really, what I’ve learned from dating in this city is that everyone is dating because that’s what they think they’re supposed to do—and not necessarily what they want to do. For whatever reason, individuals see “dating” as pivotal and necessary to their existence in New York, which, in turn, leads to the dissatisfaction of constantly dating the wrong people. New Yorkers date frivolously and freely, and there’s no regard given to discerning who we are dating. We only seem to care that we are dating at all.
It seems like New Yorkers are following a predetermined trajectory (from whatever number of external influences they are driven by) and in turn creating a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the likelihood of finding love diminishes as neurosis increases. In a city where everything is available to most people on demand, I feel like I’m watching some kind of brutal emotional massacre by overstimulation. No one knows exactly what it is they want—people seem to want everything, all at once.
Kat George, “Why Everyone In New York Should Just Stop Dating”
The deepest kind of love that you can have for anyone is that ability to let them disappear when they need to.
Andrew McMahon, On “Hostage”
That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.
Charles Bukowski, “Women”
Sincere forgiveness isn’t colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don’t worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time.
Sara Paddison
