so it goes  “We learned in the past, but we are not a result of
that. We suffered in the past, loved in the past, cried and
laughed in the past, but that’s of no use to the present. The
present has its challenges, its good and bad side. We can
neither blame nor be grateful to the past for what is happening
now. Each new experience of love has nothing whatsoever to do
with past experiences. It’s always new.” — Aleph, Paulo Coelho
mjknight11 on goodreads  The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears,
Dinaw Mengestu:  In my personal opinion, we as Americans tend to
forget that this country isn’t just made of people who
emmigrated here a hundred years ago and now we’re this big
melting pot. It’s also full of people who have immigrated
recently, and are still struggling to deal with how to balance
being between two worlds. This book does this flawlessly, and
I’m not going to lie, in a way that made me cry in public
without shame.  Sepha Stephanos is an Ethiopian immigrant who is
running from his past, but what he’s run