He was the most ordinary man in all the world, and yet in her memory he'd become luminous, like the prince in a fairy tale. - Cheryl Strayed

You don't have to get a job that makes others feel comfortable about what they perceive as your success. You don't have to explain what you plan to do with your life. You don't have to justify your education by demonstrating its financial rewards. You don't have to maintain an impeccable credit score. Anyone who expects you to do any of those things has no sense of history or economics or science or the arts. You have to pay your own electric bill. You have to be kind. You have to give it all you've got. You have to find people who love you truly and love you back with the same truth. But that's all.

life is short and that all we have to offer, in the end, is love.

And you may not be able to see this yet, but perhaps there will come a time — it could be years from now — when you’ll need to get on your horse and ride into battle and you’re going to hesitate. You’re going to falter. To heal the wound your father made, you’re going to have to get on that horse and ride into battle like a warrior.