“fool Me Once: Shame On You.

…

second

twelfth

twenty-ninth 🦊

LOVE, DEAR ABBY

“i don’t know what’s worse: to have lost them, or to have never had them at all…”

“i do. it’s to know which way it was…”

- abby

“I had a dream that we were together, and everything was ok. Then I turned and looked away, only to discover, it wasn’t you anymore. It was him.”

- abby

“…but i can always count on you to let me down.”

- abby

I look back now and know that younger me is so proud

…

first

second

third — one, two

fourth

sixth — one, two, three

eleventh

twelfth — one, two

fourteenth

fifteenth

twenty-first — one, two

twenty-eighth

twenty-ninth

LOVE, DEAR ABBY

“A hero is a person or character who is admired for their courage, achievements, noble qualities, who looks fear in the eyes and doesn’t even blink.”

That is the quote I saw on the wall of my sixth grade students classroom today. I strongly disagree.

All humans have hesitated. It’s instinct. It’s vital. It’s as strong as your heart beating. It is the culmination of thousands of years of survival. Hesitation is a universal experience.

Therefore, a hero always “blinks.” That ‘blink’ is the moment that human beings realize what they are doing. That singular defining moment that changes the gravity of the situation. The exact second that the given circumstances could produce a hero if the right choices are made.

Humans program robots. Robots don’t blink. If a robot were to walk through a path of throwing knives without blinking, would it be a hero? No, of course not. But by the first definition, they technically would be. The reasoning as to why they aren’t? Because the robot faces no repercussions. The robot has no risk. The robot has no real understanding of the danger, nor have they been forced to confront the facts of what they are up against.

That's where we come to our hero blinking. In order to be a hero, you must blink. You must have a moment to see the horrors that all logic would tell to run. Because it’s in that blink that the hero confronts the danger they put themselves in, and pushes forth anyways. That is what makes a hero. To have that shackling sensation of hesitation, and where most others would turn back, they trailblaze on. They trailblaze on anyway.

So here I propose a new definition:

“A hero is a person or character who is admired for their courage, achievements, and noble qualities, who looks fear in the eyes, blinks, and despite facing the world’s darkness, chooses to continue being the world’s light.”

Thank you for treating me the way I never knew I was supposed to be treated.

LOVE, DEAR ABBY

In letting them go, you are showing them the most love. And in that love, if it’s meant to be, they’ll come back.

- abby

tip: every time you write a letter to someone you hate, end it with “yours not yours, ____” just to really make your point.