Home > Work > Just Last Night
1 " I notice, once again, that company that’s not the right fit for you is so much lonelier than being happily alone. "
― Mhairi McFarlane , Just Last Night
2 " The things we do to avoid difficult things are often worse than the difficult thing. "
3 " This is what I never knew about loss – it’s also about what you gain. You carry a weight that you never had before. It’s never behind you. It’s alongside you. "
4 " There’s something exceptional about friendships with friends you’ve known since you were young. They know all the versions of you. They know how you were built. They have a map for you. There’s a shorthand between you, and a love that is as strong as any blood tie. "
5 " My conclusion is this: there’s no rule that says the unavailable person you waste your life being in love with has to be the greatest human you ever met. It doesn’t make the loss of him any less painful. "
6 " This is how it feels in the split second you suddenly become aware that you’re falling in love with someone. The click of a jigsaw’s last piece, the rainfall of coins in a jackpot slot machine, the right song striking up and your being swept away by its opening bars. That conviction of making complete sense of the universe, in one moment. Of course. You’re where I should be. You’re here. "
7 " I ponder how many mistakes in life are born of a simple fear of being rude. "
8 " Why are things, abandoned things, so hard to bear? They didn’t have that quality before. And compared to the living thing you’ve lost, they’re without value. "
9 " There’s shock and then there’s grief, and there’s the simple tiring unending chore of life afterward. These are all different things, I’ve learned. "
10 " You didn’t want me enough, when choosing me became harder. "
11 " I’m sure you can see why I think I’m worth more than someone who spent sixteen years making up his mind about whether I was worth the hassle. "
12 " I loved thinking you were in love with me, I encouraged it, and I never asked myself if it hurt you. I purposely blurred the lines between friendship and fancying and us being in love, because it felt good, "
13 " There’s something exceptional about friendships with friends you’ve known since you were young. They know all the versions of you. "
14 " I think the truth is: opportunities in life are like doors flashing open and slamming closed, for good. You won’t necessarily notice when they’re open, or get any warning they’re going to close. If you don’t bolt through them when you can, then that is that. "
15 " Seeing someone you know well in a totally different context is always disorientating and vaguely impressive. You realise you have them on loan from the other lives they lead. "
16 " It was really interesting to me, unravelling why we behave the way we do. "
17 " those who lose loved ones young become risk-takers. They’re not reckless, they just see the stakes differently to the rest of us. More clearly. "
18 " This is what I never knew about loss—it’s also about what you gain. You carry a weight that you never had before. It’s never behind you. It’s alongside you. "
19 " I will never have a friend like her again. Not only because of our affinity, the sheer timescales. You can't make new old friends. Doors in your life, open and closing. "
20 " As I once reasoned to a colleague, however: some people are tolerable, and life requires you to tolerate them, and there's only two ways of releasing the pressure. One, letting loose at the individual winding you up, or two, bitching mercilessly behind their back. "
