I promise the title isn't overly dramatic or click-bait, at least from my perspective. Both the book and the movie for "The Perks Of Being a Wallflower" had a major impact on my life. This book found me at a much-needed point in high school where I was navigating what social groups I might fit into (none of them) and trying to understand bigger issues in the world such as mental health and sexual assault, which are both addressed by this book. Charlie became a friend of sorts; he was really the first book character I felt I could identify with in a deeper way. The movie came out the year I graduated, so I was able to relate closely to characters like Sam who were entering a whole new world. I revisited the book last year during a particularly rough time and was left with a beaten up, highlighted book and a new found need for change in my own life to work towards self-love. Whether you're in high school or college or neither, I wanted to share some of the words that still hold meaning to me today and helped me feel a little less alone and a little more understood.

1. “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.”

2. “So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons."

"And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”

3. “I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset."

"And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have.”

4. “He's a wallflower. You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.”

5. “And I thought about how many people have loved those songs."

"And how many people got through a lot of bad times because of those songs. And how many people enjoyed good times with those songs. And how much those songs really mean. I think it would be great to have written one of those songs. I bet if I wrote one of them, I would be very proud. I hope the people who wrote those songs are happy. I hope they feel it's enough. I really do because they've made me happy. And I'm only one person.”

6. “We didn't talk about anything heavy or light."

"We were just there together. And that was enough”

7. “And I guess I realized at that moment that I really did love her."

"Because there was nothing to gain and that didn't matter.”

8. “It's much easier to not know things sometimes."

"Things change and friends leave. And life doesn't stop for anybody. I wanted to laugh. Or maybe get mad. Or maybe shrug at how strange everybody was, especially me. I think the idea is that every person has to live for his or her own life and then make the choice to share it with other people. You can't just sit there and put everybody's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can't. You have to do things. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to be who I really am. And I'm going to figure out what that is. And we could all sit around and wonder and feel bad about each other and blame a lot of people for what they did or didn't do or what they didn't know. I don't know. I guess there could always be someone to blame. It's just different. Maybe it's good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there. Because it's okay to feel things. I was really there. And that was enough to make me feel infinite. I feel infinite.”

9. “I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with someone even if they could have. I need to know these people exist.”

10. “I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that."

"That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years."

"Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that. I think wanting that is very morbid, but I want it when I get like this. That’s why I’m trying not to think. I just want it all to stop spinning.”

11. “It's just that I don't want to be somebody's crush."

"If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am. And I don't want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me, so I can feel it too.”

12. “Sometimes people use thought to not participate in life.”

13. "We accept the love we think we deserve."

14. "My doctor said we can't choose where we come from but we can choose where we go from there."

"I know it's not all the answers but it was enough to start putting these pieces together."

15. "I can see it."

"This one moment when you know you're not a sad story. You are alive and you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song on that drive with the people you love most in this world. And in this moment, I swear, we are infinite."