Rebecca Ryder

[rebecca-ryder]

Enjoyment is often in the journey, not the destination.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

So many romanticise dying for someone, but living for someone, especially when every day feels like torture, that’s real courage. Every time you decide to keep going, you’re showing a kind of strength that most people will never know. I see that in you, and it makes you a hero in my eyes. The fact that you’re still here, despite everything, speaks to a kind of bravery and sacrifice that deserves to be recognised.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

I know moving forward can be frightening, but staying in the same place seems even more horrific, doesn’t it?

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

The sun will rise soon, and it’ll be the first day of the rest of your life. The start of a new chapter.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

Before those trees grew, they took the time to find their roots. They took nourishment from the soil and found their place in the earth. The roots are the most important part of the tree, yet they are unseen and unfelt. You are learning and growing. You just don't see it. Some of these trees are the same age as you, growing alongside you. You have never been alone.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

There is no right way to recover, but there is a wrong way, that is if you don’t try to recover at all.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

If you ever find yourself without someone to live for, live for yourself. Be here now, but do things that make younger you happy and older you proud.  There is still time. This is your starting point, not the end. There are people out there waiting to meet you, waiting to love you. If you don’t believe me, why not simply stay to find your new favourite movie, to find your new favourite food? Or just to prove people wrong. The truth is, there is so much to do here. There are so many books you have left to read. There are so many instruments to play, songs to hear, foods to try, places to go. So why not add some more lines to your smile? Let the silver hairs sprout from your cranium. Don’t you want to become the person you’ve always meant to be? Don’t you want to get clean?  There is no right way to recover, but there is a wrong way, that is if you don’t try to recover at all.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

I can’t understand your pain, but I see how you carry it. I see how it crushes you and how you choose to keep going despite it. I think I know why you hesitated to jump. You’ve suffered a long time, yet you continue to stay, not because it’s easy but because you don’t want to hurt the people around you. Every day of your life so far, despite the pain, you have chosen to stay. People rarely talk about this side of suicide, but every time you make that decision not to end things, you’re making a sacrifice that most people can’t even begin to understand. You’re not a coward, you are not taking the ‘easy way out.’ You’re fighting a battle every single day, and you’re doing it out of love. I don’t think you realise just how brave that is. Not only is it an act of incredible selflessness, but it is something quite extraordinary.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

The stars would be so proud to know their atoms came together to create someone like you.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

If you fight back, you’ll have a chance, but not a guarantee. If you don't fight back, you’ll have a guarantee and not a chance.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

Being an adult is fighting to find you that you couldn’t be when you were a child.  It’s learning that you don’t have to be the ‘you’ others said you had to be when you were younger.  It’s learning to trim off the parts that you don’t want and add the parts you always wanted but perhaps weren’t allowed. It’s also finding the unknown, undeveloped parts of you that you had to hide as a child and bringing them to the surface, to nourish or to learn to deal with.  Sometimes those parts are hard to accept, but being an adult is a long process. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to find out who we really are. Yes, there are taxes and work. But that isn’t what makes you an adult.  Being an adult is realising that you make the rules, good or bad, for yourself now. Being an adult is being responsible for you, because only you get to decide who you are and what is best for you. It’s difficult and it’s not something you ever stop doing. Working on you is hard, but you have to fight for it.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

We shouldn’t judge others based on what they were last seen being.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

The past shouldn’t be a place to live in, it should be a place to learn from.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

One must be ready to question, able to believe and open to change. For without doubt we are easily deceived, without belief we learn nothing new and without change we cannot move forward.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

I don’t think it matters what you believe in, as long as you believe in yourself.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

I can think of no greater crime against the human race. To reduce the complexity of the universe, the depth and wonders of existence. To look at our intricate workings and assume we lack all innate sense of right and wrong. To claim that we must follow a set of rules and commands set out by an external authority in order to function. Oh, how dare he. We taught ourselves how to survive. We learned how to hunt, grow, harvest and cook. How to walk, talk and build. We made roads, bridges, rivers and dams. Created art, science and philosophy. We found ways to harness energy, to cure illnesses and to stop great forces of evil. We learned how to mine minerals from the earth and use them to improve our lives. With cars, cameras and computers, we learned how to travel across continents, to soar through the skies and to put man on the moon. Shakespeare, Galileo, Einstein, Picasso. Do they mean nothing? Why is it so frowned upon to credit our teachers, our mothers and our fathers? The people who nurtured us, who formed us. Humanity did those things, our ancestors. It’s one thing to challenge science, but to claim our struggles, our innovations and our creations. There is nothing I find more insulting.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

[rebecca-ryder]

It matters not what you look at, but what you see.

— Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams