21 Quotes by Yamile Saied Méndez

Scoring a goal is almost like kissing. The more you do it, the more you want. I wanted to keep scoring until it hurt.

When we played, we were all the same. We were all one.

The sense of wonder and possibility – that I owed to the Argentine women who had fought for freedom before the universe conspired and the stars aligned to make me.

If family folklore was to be trusted, I had never learned to shut up or do as I was told.

Twenty years from now, would that be me? Would I be resigned to my fate, pushing my daughter toward the light so she could be free? Or pulling her down so I wouldn’t be along in the dark?

The girl Diego said he loved was the strong one, the winning Camila, the one with a future she was forging for herself… If he rescued me, if I quit for him. I wouldn’t be the girl he loved. I wouldn’t be myself.

Did something count as a miracle if it possible only because of a lie?

Our family was stuck in a cosmic hamster wheel of toxic love, making the same mistakes, saying the same words, being hurt in the same ways generation after generation. I didn’t want to keep playing a role in this tragedy of errors.

I’d leave this house the first chance I got, but not by chasing after a boy, including my brother. I’d do it on my own terms, following my dreams, not someone else’s.