You’re certainly my favorite scientific anomaly right now.

But I believe sometimes in life someone's path intersects with the person they need most at any given moment. They walk together for a little while, sharing the road for as long or as short a time as they need each other.

Do you have any idea how frightening it is to care for someone who dreams? They infect you with their optimism. And soon you start to dream together. You begin to dare to hope.

Natalya’s father, a military man, had taught her to claim her space. He’d taught her how to stand tall, shake hands firmly, look people in the eye, and stake her place in the world, unflinching and unapologetic. Women, like men, had to demand to be counted.

She scrolled back to the photo. The woman’s body language set her teeth on edge. Why did women persist in trying to take up less space than they needed? She should take what was hers, not shrink from her own shadow.