growing up – secretive dreams

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

Oscar Wilde

We are shaped by our shaping of the world and are shaped again in turn.

David Whyte

It was over a plate of ribs at my aunt’s dining room table when I learned that being a woman is about what men are allowed to do to you.

Tressie McMillan Cottom, How we make black girls grow up too fast, The New York Times

There was, also, a strained nostalgia in those reunions, […] because she struggled to find, in these adult women, some remnants from her past that were often no longer there.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

So much of growing up is an unbearable waiting. A constant longing for another time. Another season.

Sonia Sanchez (via blackfeministmessiah)

There are places like this everywhere, places you enter as a young girl, from which you never return.

Louise Glück

Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.

Ally Condie

I guess part of growing up is realizing that your options get narrower and narrower as time goes on.