Being Needed

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I thought how there was a kind of power in being needed. In having a purpose. I could feel it hardening up my bones and thickening my blood.

Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Just a Pawn

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When she made the sacrifice, when she waited for Tam’s call that Artegal was on his way and went out for that fake press conference wearing her white homecoming dress so no one would mistake what she was trying to do, then run to the field where Artegal landed—she had felt powerful because she was doing something. She and the dragon had made this plan together, they’d done what they needed to do, and it had worked. Sure, the whole thing had been a little bit crazy, but rather than being scared she’d been giddy. She felt like they could have done anything.

She hadn’t felt like that in a while. This time, this plan, felt like a shot in the dark. She was a pawn, only able to move a step or two at a time.

Refuge of Dragons (Voices of Dragons #2) by Carrie Vaughn

Learn Without Fear

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“What we lack in education and experience, we more than make up for in gumption, and a willingness to put ourselves out there. We know a lot more today than we did a year ago, and  each new lesson has empowered us with a deeper understanding of how capable we are, if we allow ourselves to simply learn, without fear.”

Browsing Nature’s Aisles: A Year of Foraging for Wild Food in the Suburbs by Wendy Brown and Eric Brown

Importance is Relative

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“It’s easier to matter less. To just be what you are—one tiny person who doesn’t really affect huge things like this.”

“You don’t think one person matters?”

I tentatively slide my hand down her spine to settle against her hip. “Maybe everybody can matter that much to at least one other person.

Gold Runner: A Novella of Goblins, Theft, and Teenage Gods (United States of Asgard) by Tessa Gratton

 

 

 

Empowerment Anthem

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June is LGBT Pride month.

I Will Survive (AKA: The Gay Anthem)

“At first, I was afraid, I was petrified.
Kept thinkin’ I could never live
Without you by my side,
But then I spent so many nights
Thinkin’ how you did me wrong.
And I grew strong
And I learned how to get along.”

“Well, now go! Walk out the door!
Just turn around now,
‘Cause you’re not welcome anymore!
Weren’t you the one
Who tried to hurt me with goodbye?
Did you think I’d crumble?
Did you think I’d lay down and die?”

“Oh no, not I! I will survive!”

-I Will Survive (single) and We Will Survive (album), performed by Gloria Gaynor, written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris

Midwestern United States Pride Month Resources:

Never Truly Weak

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They attacked me to make me feel weak. I can pretend they succeeded to protect myself, but I can’t let it become true.

Divergent (Divergent Series) by Veronica Roth