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81 " Where we come from leaves fingerprints all over us, and if you know how to read the signs of a place, you know a little bit more about who someone is. "
― Elizabeth Acevedo , With the Fire on High
82 " What a beautiful smile," she says softly, like she's talking more to herself than to him. "This one, the real smile you have on right now. Almost as if you're choosing to give a sunlit middle finger to this fucked-up world. "
83 " I just know whatever it is, I want it to be major. I want to be remembered for something great. I want to leave a skyscraper-sized mark on the world... "
84 " Who made this boy think I had time for him? Got me out here wasting all my good words. "
85 " Just the two of us. We can make it if we try. "
86 " My grandmother is a woman who is not afraid of tears or sharp things. "
87 " We all smile at baby girl, who shows off her teeth, as if she knows she has a coven of women holding her down and that she can be anything and everything we dream for her. "
88 " So much of my decision to have sex had more to do with being chosen than it did with any actual sexual attraction. "
89 " Sometimes, when he talks about returning to Newark, he reminds me of my father. A love for home so deep, you go out into the world with the soul purpose of bringing the world back to your hood. "
90 " Who made this boy think I had time for him? Got me out here wasting all my good words. But then he smiles. Dimples popping out on both cheeks like billboards for joy and I stumble over my own feet. "
91 " This is a place where two worlds collided: Beautiful because of the struggle that happened to create it, holy because of the belief people had in it, a home, a masterpiece of art, a mixture of different cultures. "
92 " The fake sweet smile she was wearing has cannonballed clear off her face into a pool of confusion. "
93 " And I know the past isn’t a mirror image of the future, but it’s a reflection of what can be. And when your first love breaks your heart, the shards of that can still draw blood for a long, long time. "
94 " She sings about how everything changes: the shallow and the profound, the shiny and the old. Everything but the love for home changes. "
95 " The moment stretches into the yard beyond awkward and enters the goal post of embarrassing. "
96 " It's like she's a wooly mammoth whose most comfortable seat is my last nerve. "
97 " because what better way to take a leap of faith than to set something on fire and trust it will not only come out right, but that it will be completely delicious? "
98 " He was fine, older, and mostly nice to me. At least, I convinced myself he was nice. And most important, he wanted me. He could have sex with any girl, but I was the one he was after. Even thinking about it now I get a little twisted up inside. So much of my decision to have sex had more to do with being chosen than it did with any actual sexual attraction. "
99 " You gotta make your home better; you don’t just run because you can. "
100 " You need to change your measurement." Chef looks up from his grading. "Excuse me?"I point to the recipe. "Your measurement of salt in the recipe, we followed it exactly. So if the dish needs more salt, you need to change your measurement."He raises an eyebrow and as we walk to our station, Richard elbows me in the ribs. "Seriously, Emoni? You couldn't just let it go?"I don't answer. Call me salty. "