Carrie Soto Is Back: A Novel

My older self knows that you must stop—in the middle of the chaos—to take in the world around you. To breathe in deeply, smell the sunscreen and the rubber of the ball, let the breeze blow across your neck, feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. In this respect, I love the way the world has aged me.

“Everything we achieve is ephemeral. We have it, and then the next second it’s gone. You had that record, and you may lose that record. Or you may defend it now and lose it in two years all over again.

“Just accept it. Let me feel it and say it. You’re the meaning of my life.”

have always known there is no mountain you cannot climb, one step at a time.

We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.

I don’t say what I’m thinking. You are all I have.

wondered why anyone would want to build anything out of sand, when tomorrow it will be gone, and you’d have nothing to show for your day.

“Because you are not yet who you will one day be.”

Maybe it’s a lie that you have to keep doing what you have always done. That you have to be able to draw a straight line from how you acted yesterday to how you’ll act tomorrow. You don’t have to be consistent.