8 Quotes by Misa Sugiura

I become like a boulder on the beach in a time-lapse video. The sun and moon and stars cross the sky again and again, shadows lengthen and shrink, the tide rushes in and out. The sea heaves in the background, crabs and seabirds flicker in and out of view. Meanwhile, the boulder sits there, stolid, unmoving, all alone, as life whizzes past.

And I remember that hiding the truth doesn’t stop things from being true. Not talking about things doesn’t stop them from happening. Pretending that a thing is something else doesn’t change its true nature.

But different is okay in America, even though I forget sometimes. You are okay, even though you are different.

My mom says I’m fat. Well, my grandmother does. Asian moms live to say shit like that. It’s what they do. You should know better than to listen. And you should also know better than to think you have to be skinny to be pretty. Anyone who cares what size you are is an asshole.

Asking for acceptance and equal rights isn’t selfish. It wouldn’t be an issue at all if other people accepted them instead of thinking of them as freaks.

I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just – how can your friends expect people to treat them like individuals if they dress like stereotypes? The same reason you expect to be treated like an individual even though you look like a stereotype.

You know how if a drowning person can’t swim, the best thing they can do is stop trying to swim, and just float? But instead they panic and flail, and the more they flail the worse it gets, and the worse it gets the more they flail?

We are who we are, and we shouldn't have to suffer for it, or prove anything to anyone.