pieces of media that made me feel seen

Last updated: 1 month, 2 weeks ago.

No one wanted to play with me as a little kid
So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since
To make them love me and make it seem effortless

       Mastermind by Taylor Swift

        MOLLY
We chose. We didn't party because
we wanted to focus on school and
get into good colleges.
        AMY
And it worked.
        MOLLY
But the irresponsible people who
partied also got into good
colleges! They did both!
        AMY
So?
        MOLLY
So we messed up! We didn’t have to
choose! They did both and we’re the
only assholes who did one!

       Booksmart (2019) dir. Olivia Wilde

I'm safe, because I have read a great deal, in several languages, ranging over many ancient and modern literatures. Although I can't claim to have set out to do this, it's as if my eagerness to go on reading, at random, indiscriminately, one book after another, good and bad, was a way of ensuring that the "sum" finally produced by my experience as a reader would be absolutely unique and without equal. That uniqueness, on its own, ought to make me precious and irreplaceable, and give me the equivalent of superpowers, or one at least, of a highly specialized kind: something that no one else can do; and that's enough for me.

       Birthday by César Aira

I was always ashamed to take. So I gave.
It was not a virtue. It was a disguise.

       Anaïs Nin

You don't have to be sorry for doing it on your own

       Matilda by Harry Styles

They told me all of my cages were mental
So I got wasted like all my potential
And my words shoot to kill when I'm mad
I have a lot of regrets about that
I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere
Fell behind all my classmates, and I ended up here

       This Is Me Trying by Taylor Swift

I wanted just a bit of grief rather than despair.
&, in my shame, I wanted my childhood back.
I wanted to walk backward out of the room
where I kept my secrets. I wanted to say I'm hurt
before my hurt became a character trait I told
no one but myself. When I wanted unknowing,
I was given certainty, & when I wanted the hard
& fixed line, I was given mystery. Sometimes,
I wanted to give it all back, but to who, I wondered,
& how? I wanted a life to come out of my life,
but instead I was left with my life.

       All That Wanting, Right? by Devin Kelly