The organization To Write Love On Her Arms was founded ten years ago this month. TWLOHA inspires and saves lives everyday through inspirational messages, movements and communities. In 2013, I heard founder Jame Tworkoski speak at my school, and I felt inspired and motivated.
These feelings amplified after I read his book "If You Feel Too Much" last summer. "If You Feel Too Much" is a collection of personal stories and essays that celebrate hope, life and relationships. In honor of TWLOHA, here are my favorite 10 quotes from "If You Feel Too Much."
1. "Don’t give up. Don’t give up on your story. Don’t give up on the people you love. Hope is real. Love is real. It’s all worth fighting for."
2. "Be present. Fight to be present. Don't live only in your head. It's lonely and it's dangerous. Put your phone down for a few hours every day. Talk to people. Look someone in the eyes and be honest and invite them to do the same. Read a good book and watch a great film and put a song a repeat and remember who you are.
Keep dreaming all your dreams. And perhaps as well someone new ones. Go to counseling if your need to go to counseling. Take your own advice. Take care of yourself. Take care of the people who you love. Tell them that you love them. There is so much to be thankful for."
3. "If you need a break, it’s okay to say you need a break. This life –it’s not a contest, not a race, not a performance, not a thing that you win. It’s okay to slow down. You are here for more than grades, more than a job, more than a promotion, more than keeping up, more than getting by."
4. “We are all a people in need. We are not perfect. We are not machines. We make mistakes. We need grace. We need compassion. We need help at times. We need other people. And that’s okay.”
5. "I don’t know your story or your dreams or the things that steal your sleep, but I know they matter. I hope you story is rich with characters, rich with friends and conversation. I hope you know some people who carry you, and I hope you have the honor of carrying them. I hope that there’s beauty in your memories, and I hope it doesn’t haunt you.
And if it does, then I hope there is someone who will walk you through the night and remind you of the promise of the sunrise, that beauty keeps coming, that there are futures worth waiting and fighting for, and that you were made to dream.”
6. "Laugh and cry and apologize and start again. This life is short and fragile but friendship is among the greatest miracles.”
7. "We choose to stay, because we are all stories still going. Because there is still some time for things to turn around, time to be surprised and time for change. We stay because no one else can play your part. Life is worth living. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
8. "What if the things that ended –the things that broke and break your heart- what if it was the end of a chapter but the story keeps going? What it life comes back? What if love comes back? What if you would not be who you are and you would now know what you know it not for all those sleepless nights?"
9. “Love is a choice as much as it is magic. Magic comes in moments, but choices stretch out over time. We make them new each morning.”
10. "You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things."
