Tara Schuster

These people are not bad, damned, or unworthy, rather they are just working out their own shit. But let me remind you that their shit is not your shit. You do not need to “save” them.

sed to suffer from a deep-seated paranoia that people, in general, didn’t like me. Or at least, I figured, they were judging me at all times.

I would endlessly obsess over external feedback, playing back the most mundane conversations in my head, torturing myself over all the ways I felt I had screwed up.

That is where you have all the power in the world. Try letting go of the notion that anyone is mistreating you on purpose, and stand back as you watch resentment and anger float away. It takes time, it takes practice, but it does work. As you clear away all of those feelings that were holding you down, that were telling you, “This horrible thing is being done TO ME,” watch as you find more room in yourself for love and compassion.

I’m done hoping for a different past and a better childhood. I can no sooner have those things than I can build a time machine. Now I’m getting to know my dad for the man he is.

Paris was exactly as I remembered it: a moody bitch.