"Milk and Honey," written by Rupi Kaur, is a book describing loss, abuse, heartache, love, femininity and healing. This book describes many scenarios people of all ages can relate to and understand. In particular, college students all around the world go through many stages of learning about themselves and moving towards the person they're meant to be. If there's anything I've learned throughout these demanding, stressful years we call college, it's that it is not easy whatsoever and sometimes we need to hear things we may not think about otherwise. "Milk and Honey" gives quotes that idealize to these tough times we college students need to hear.
"You must enter a relationship with yourself before anyone else"
"Trying to convince myself I am allowed to take up space is like writing with my left hand when I was born to use my right"
"We began with honesty let us end in it too"
"I am water soft enough to offer life tough enough to drown it away"
"It takes grace to remain kind in cruel situations"
"People go but how they left always stays"
"Loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself"
"Do not bother holding on to that thing that does not want you"
"Accept that you deserve more than painful love life is moving the healthiest thing for your heart is to move with it"
"You are in the habit of co-depending on people to make up for what you think you lack who tricked you into believing another person was meant to complete you when the most they can do is complement"
"Do not look for healing at the feet of those who broke you"
"If you were born with the weakness to fall you were born with the strength to rise"
"Stay strong through your pain grow flowers from it you have helped me grow flowers out of mine so bloom beautifully dangerously loudly bloom softly however you need just bloom"
"I thank the universe for taking everything it has taken and giving to me everything it is giving"
"Fall in love with your solitude"
"It is a part of the human experience to feel pain do not be afraid open yourself to it"
"Sometimes the apology never comes when it is wanted and when it comes it is neither wanted nor needed"
"To be soft is to be powerful"
"You deserve to be completely found in your surroundings not lost within them"
"I know it's hard believe me I know it feels like tomorrow will never come and today will be the most difficult day to get through but I swear you will get through the hurt will pass as it always does if you give it time and let it so let it go slowly like a broken promise let it go"
"Accept yourself as you were designed"
"Your body is a museum of natural disasters can you grasp how stunning that is
"Losing you was the becoming of myself"
"I have what I have and I am happy I've lost what I've lost and I am still happy"
"You look at me and cry everything hurts I hold you and whisper but everything can heal"
"If the hurt comes so will the happiness"
"We are all born so beautiful the greatest tragedy is being convinced we are not"
"The world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it"
"Your art is not about how many people like your work your art is about if your heart likes your work if your soul likes your work it's about how honest you are with yourself and you must never trade honesty for reliability"
"How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you"
"You are your own soul mate"
"Some people are so bitter to them you must be the kindest"
"For you to see beauty here does not mean there is beauty in me it means there is beauty rooted so deep within you you can't help but see it everywhere"
"I want to remain so rooted to the ground these tears these hands these feet sink in"
"You have to stop searching for why at some point you have to leave it alone"
"If you are not enough for yourself you will never be enough for someone else"
"You must want to spend the rest of your life with yourself first"
"Give to those who have nothing to give you"
"Most importantly love like it's the only thing you know how at the end of the day all this means nothing this page where you're sitting your degree your job the money nothing even matters except love and human connection who you loved and how deeply you loved them how you touched the people around you and how much you gave them"
The years we spend in college are years that only come once in a lifetime. The battles we endure in our collegiate years make us who we are, and at the end of the day, every mistake is a lesson learned. Rupi Kaur gives great examples of what it's like to weather the day-to-day aches and pains college puts us through, but the memories we collect, the stories we gain, and the forever friendships we cherish until we're old and gray are moments we hold steady forevermore.
