1
" That is what is marvelous about school, she realized: when you are in school, your talents are without number, and your promise is boundless. You ace a math test: you will one day work for NASA. The choir director asks you to sing a solo at the holiday concert: you are the next Mariah Carey. You score a goal, you win a poetry contest, you act in a play. And you are everything at once: actor, astronomer, gymnast, star. But at a certain point, you begin to feel your talents dropping away, like feathers from a molting bird. Cello lessons conflict with soccer practice. There aren't enough spots on the debating team. Calculus remains elusive. Until the day you realize that you cannot think of a single thing you are wonderful at. "
― Sarah Shun-lien Bynum , Ms. Hempel Chronicles
7
" If you were M. Pujol, Madeleine says, I would reach out my hand to you. Like this.
If you were M. Pujol, Adrien says, I would press my mouth against your pulse. Like this.
If you were he, she says, I would cup your chin in my fingers.
If you were he, he says, I would take those fingers into my mouth.
Then my mouth would envy my fingers, she says.
Then your mouth must usurp your fingers, he says.
And then, she says, I would do this. "
― Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
