Brianne McDonald

Real humanity and true, honest connection exists between individuals when all the nonsense is stripped away.

Yes, kind bartender person, I would like your best drink that tastes the least like alcohol. Thank you.

The world keeps moving, running past you, and it doesn’t make sense how it can all keep going on after your life is over.

I know the silence that follows the setting of the sun, when there’s no T.V. or video games or computers to fill the stillness, just soft voices and quiet smiles in the deepening darkness.

2. Despite fawning over elaborate and extremely public proposal scenes, the idea of one actually happening to you in real life leaves you hyperventilating in something very akin to pure, unadulterated terror.

1. Everyone, seriously everyone, is going to judge you.

As a little girl caught in a difficult, and often damaging home situation, video games offered me what they offered to so many — an outlet, a way to feel empowered and in control of a life that was tumultuous and scary.

Caught up in a torrent of emotions that we seem powerless to control; hardly able to think of anything else, barely able to function outside of the situation. We lose ourselves in ‘love,’ in what we believe love is supposed to be and how it is supposed to feel.

You rarely assume that you can know or understand someone at first meeting, or even the second, or third.

Tangled cords bring out the worst in everyone, especially if they happen to be Christmas lights.

Take the time to occasionally remember that your needs are important and if you don’t make them a priority, no one else will. Take the time to understand those needs, and actively pursue them.

3. In reality: sure, men seem to initially appreciate your laid back, easy going demeanor, but it actually ends up turning against you.

Life is about risk-taking. It’s a gamble and sometimes you will lose.

3. You quickly come to realize that the only difference between wedding decorations and regular decorations is the word ‘wedding’… and a 50% markup.

One thing people don’t really prepare you for when deciding to reproduce is… other parents.

Hey, you. Yeah I mean you. I just wanted to say, in a totally non-creepy way of course, that… well, I can see you.

I think we all find our own ways to cope with trauma. Mine has always been, for better or for worse, reading and writing.

Inevitably we all will let someone, or several someone’s, into our hearts and souls and we won’t be able to get them out again.