38 Things I Know Are True

Theme: being human.

1. No one is talking about you as much as you think they are. Probably literally zero people are currently saying, “Man, I’m so mad at [your name].”
2. You can’t cheapen the words “I love you.” Television and movies had me believing that when you said “I love you,” you had to “mean it.” Apparently, it’s difficult and a very big deal to mean it. People are, apparently, mostly vast, loveless puddles of shallow emotion, and the lake of love is difficult to forge. Apparently. Except ACTUALLY, that’s not true AT ALL! You can love everyone. Go ahead! You can say “I love you” to someone in line at the grocery store (I mean, there may be social consequences, but otherwise), and you can mean it. And then when you find someone you love in a way you never knew before you can say, “Wow, I love you a depth I previously thought impossible.” You can say, “I feel vulnerable about how much I love you.” You can say these things and the fact that you also said “I love you” to the person at the grocery store buying both ketchup AND condoms (!!!) does not make any of the words less true. Love is not a finite resource. Don’t be stingy with it. The world really needs it right now.

All illustrations, including this one, are by the author, who is me, who is Sophie Lucido Johnson.

3. You can cheapen the words “I’m sorry.” Apologies matter, because they allow us to tell someone else that we see how our actions affected them, and that we will…