Escape. Escape from what? To what? She had no idea.

"Because I want to be alone. Because I want to be free."

— Out, Natsuo Kirino

I know life can be so difficult and I want you to know that I'm proud of everything you accomplish even if it seems small.

— comment from someone named sunny on a random tiktok

I'm listening to something sad on my headphones. Some love song. I've always related to love song lyrics in a different way, usually some kind of mourning of my relationship with myself, I don't know.

— The New Me, Halle Butler

I kept failing to remember the things that were said in conversations because I was so nervous in the moment.

I don't want to pretend I'm special, but I do want to be happy. I want to own my own life [...] to simply acknowledge the fact that I'm an independent individual.

— I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki, Baek Se-hee

— Aono-kun ni Sawaritai kara Shinitai, Umi Shiina

When you look at the bigger picture, you have it pretty good. Compared to other people in this world, you have a really good life. Maybe it's not what you think it should be but...you do. You have a good life.

— Shy Boys (28:17-28:35)

I don't care. it's not my job to make him happy.

— j_a, 2023

※

we went karaoking with mutuals of mutuals. this was her response to me when I asked if she noticed that someone in the group seemed like they weren't having a good time.

— Ase to Sekken, Kintetsu Yamada

"so what's up?" "just living life man"

— 2 random men on the subway, June 16, 2018 @ 4:10PM

"You live on, even if it sucks—what else?"

I don't want the duties that come with a collective, it's no fair that they make demands on me just because I belong here. I want to be like an anonymous consumer—pay for a service, get my money's worth, grab the receipt, then go home and be left alone to go to sleep. Talking with other people wears me out, so please, leave me alone, please, please, even if it means I die a solitary death.

— Mina, Kim Sagwa

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I classify this as an "undesirable" quote; I want to be a person who doesn't resonate with it, but I've undeniably and truthfully have/had thoughts like this before. what I objectively know: individualism has mostly done harm, there's a comforting feeling of being around people (you like), and not percieving myself as an interloper before giving people the chance to get to know me has helped my self-image immensely. despite, the objective positives, it still sometimes feels so intense and troublesome that being alone seems easier. even when you know it makes you feel selfish and worst long term, it's familiar enough to be managed. if I were recruited in a cult, I would be kicked out for not wanting to interact with the members lol. initially reading the quote was a bit gut wrenching because it was as if the author read a bunch of my personal entries from 2015-2017, 2021ish and presented my unproductive and childish thoughts back to me. scary

And I wonder if anyone is really happy. I hope they are. I really hope they are.

I think the idea is that every person has to live for his or her own life and then make the choice to share it with other people. Maybe that is what makes people "participate".

And nobody felt sad as long as we could postpone tomorrow with nostalgia.

— The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

clothes will always be there except not because it's a thrift shop so like it's one of a kind but that's okay

— m_a, 2019

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I like to read old texts. sometimes I have to guess who I'm talking to because I delete contacts when it's been too long. m_a is one of those friends where I wish we could be regular friends instead of friend-from-a-specific-time friends. I feel love for her even if we don't talk. we didn't end up ever going thrifting together but that's okay.

You wanna know what I do when I have a really bad, awful, terrible day? I imagine my great-great-great granddaughter in the future, talking to her class about me. She's poised, and funny, and tells people about me and how everything worked out in the end. And when I think about that, I think about how everything's going to work out, because how else could she tell people?

— Princess Carolyn, Bojack Horseman

There's a light on in the attic. Though the house is dark and shuttered, I can see a flickerin' flutter, And I know what it's about. There's a light on in the attic. I can see it from the outside, And I know you're on the inside...lookin' out.

— Shel Silverstein, A Light In The Attic

the next song is called "silence". so I'm gonna need silence from you guys.

— some guy performing at a jazz restaurant, b_a's birthday dinner 2024

— Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san, Yuu Morikawa

They're just not willing, and it's so frustrating cause I see myself when I wasn't willing.

— Wardrobe Stylist Interview - Cosmo (32:12-32:17)

It had dawned on me only very recently that the things I truly want to get across to others were actually few and far between, and they didn't have to be conveyed in a loud voice or even in words at all. I only wished I'd realized that sooner.

— So We Look to the Sky, Misumi Kubo

We were like ugly catfish, living on the bottom of a stagnant swamp. But in moments like this even catfish, ignorant of why they were born that way, manage to float to the water's surface to breathe in clean air and, in the light of the sun, witness the world as it is meant to be seen. Only during such moments were we able to be as normal people.

— Nan-Core, Mahokura Numata

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