Leaving Isn’t The Hardest Thing

I love memoirs, they’re so moving and powerful. This one is hard and heavy and hilarious and full of pain and love. and swears ♥️

I read Leaving Isn’t The Hardest Thing, by Lauren Hough

“I was angry. I was tired of feeling sorry for myself. Which is really the same thing, but anger provides a comforting lie: that you’re safe, that you have self-respect.”

“There are levels of privilege. Now that I’ve jumped a level, from blue-collar asshole, possibly crazy veteran with a criminal record, to writer who no one would suspect has a criminal record, or if they do suspect, they don’t care, I do have to talk about it. Or nothing will change. Because people still believe, despite all evidence, that cops don’t lie, that the system is just, that people in jail deserve jail, and, mostly, that it won’t happen to them. I can tell you solitary confinement is torture. I can quote the stats on who’s in jail, how many are serving serious time who haven’t been convicted of anything at all. But unless you understand it can happen to you, to someone who looks like you, that you can end up in solitary, guilty or not, and lose your goddamn mind, unless I can make you feel it, you won’t fucking care.”