The Year In Great Sentences
Maris Kreizman, Publishing Project Specialist at Kickstarter
Sentence: “Even though you had to identify the extreme duress of your past and locate the ways in which these traumas formed you; even though you STILL need to be wary of tepid men and intense overbearing people who will use your scars to bend you to their will; even though you will probably ALWAYS, in some tiny corner of your brain, suspect that you’re too fucked by your circumstances and chemistry and nature to ever be a regular person in the world with an equal shot at happiness as everyone else, you also have to, simultaneously, try to let that stuff go.”
Where It’s From: An Ask Polly column entitled “You Are Not Uniquely Fucked.”
Why It’s Great: Prescriptive writing doesn’t sound so self-helpy when it comes from intensely smart and funny writers like Heather Havrilesky. Her Ask Polly column is like the most tender slap in the face, an empathetic reminder that we all (I’m referring to the entirety of the Internet here) can stand to try a little harder.