“If you don't connect yourself to your family and to the world in some fashion, through your job or whatever it is you do, you feel like you're disappearing, you feel like you're fading away, you know? I felt like that for a very very long time. Growing up, I felt like that a lot. I was just invisible; an invisible person. I think that feeling, wherever it appears, and I grew up around people who felt that way, it's an enormous source of pain; the struggle to make yourself felt and visible. To have some impact, and to create meaning for yourself, and for the people you come in touch with.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWorldWayFeelsPersonsLongFeelingsPainJobsFeltStruggleGrowing UpGrowingFashionLike YouSourceGrewGrew UpLong TimeImpactDisappearInvisibleEnormousOur FamilyVisibleFadingFading Away Author:Bruce Springsteen
“I grew up on the rough side of the tracks. If you looked like you were soft, you would be fodder for the wolves. I came up in my neighbourhood like, 'I'm just gonna be me,' and all the thugs just said, 'It's OK, he's special.' They knew I had the talent with the rhymes, so they kept me around.” IfsSaidWould BeSidesSpecialTalentLike YouGrewGrew UpTrackRoughRhymeThugNeighbourhoodsFodder Author:Q-Tip
“Even if you're starting from scratch and buying a new wardrobe, preppy clothes are very fairly priced compared to high fashion. They're very easy to absorb into your wardrobe. You probably already have stuff you can wear and there's a safety factor. You're dressed for success, in a way, if you look like you grew up with success.” IfsWayLooksEasyStuffFashionLike YouGrewClothesGrew UpSafetyStartingFactorsBuyingScratchesWardrobeHigh FashionPreppy Author:Lisa Birnbach
“When someone writes something hateful and threatening I respond with something like, "I want to be so much like you; I want to wear your skin." By messing with them in that way you change what they're selling. They won't share it. And it halts the conversation. Or I'll change it to "Jenny, you're like a rose bush that grew a watermelon." They come back pissed off and write, "I didn't say that!"” WayWantWritingShareLike YouGrewConversationSkinsRoseSellingThreateningHatefulHaltPissed OffJennyRose Bush Author:Jenny Lawson
“I grew up in Harlem, but I moved to the Lower East Side when I was a teenager and it was ... I feel like when I try to describe it, it doesn't sound believable. It just sounds like you're lying. And I see it on the faces of my younger friends.” FeelsTryingFacesLyingSoundSidesLike YouGrewGrew UpMovedEastTeenagerBelievableHarlemEast Side Author:Zoe Leonard
“I had to learn how to trust the Lord. My faith muscles grew. Just like, you're exercising your muscles and they may be sore for a while, but they become stronger with exercise.” MayLordLike YouGrewExerciseStrongerMuscles Author:Bill Bright
“I think that people all grow up and have their same personalities, but you can say, "Oh, I can see the roots of this personality, which I didn't like, but then you grew up, and I can still see you as that person, but I do really like you now." Which is sort of how I feel about children - I mean, about children who I knew when I was a child and grew up with, and they're still my friends, and children that I know as children who I see growing up, and every year I like them more.” PeopleThinkingKnowsFeelsYearsMeanChildrenPersonsStillsI CanGrowsGrowing UpGrowingLike YouGrewPersonalityGrew UpMy FriendsRootsReally Like You Author:Ann Patchett
“I grew up in the time just when cassettes were waning and CDs were growing. And so mix tapes - and not mix CDs - mix tapes were an important part of the friendship and mating rituals of New York adolescents. If you were a girl and I wanted you - to show you I like you, I would make you a 90-minute cassette wherein I would show off my tastes. I would play you a musical theater song next to a hip-hop song next to an oldie next to some pop song you maybe never heard, also subliminally telling you how much I like you with all these songs.” IfsImportantPlayShowsWantedSongGirlNextGrowingHeardMinutesNew YorkLike YouGrewTasteGrew UpTheaterMusicalHip HopPopsHipsHopsRitualTapeCdsShowing OffI Like YouPop SongMatingMusical TheaterCassettesHip Hop Song Author:Lin-Manuel Miranda