I know David argued with the chisel. I know he said, 'Make me softer. - Andrea Gibson

It's okay. Everybody's survival looks a little bit like death sometimes.

month into the job, I can’t look at any of the girls without seeing my baby sister’s face the first time someone hurt her on purpose. It wasn’t my sister’s grief so much as her shock that stuck with me. None of these girls are shocked by the hurt that hunts them — they expect the blade of this life to keep cutting and ask it to whittle them into someone too sharp to touch.

My first psychotherapist told me to spend three hours each day sitting in a dark closet with my eyes closed and my ears plugged. I tried it once but couldn't stop thinking how gay it was to be sitting in the closet.