- I know the sun will rise every day of the rest of my life.
- Unless I somehow manage to live for 5 billion-ish more years, in which case, I know that I have lived too long.
- I know the sight of the moon makes me happy, especially when I can see it through a telescope.
- I know telescopes are expensive and the light pollution in Toronto prevents me from seeing much.
- I know I hate living in the city, but have to live here for at least a little while longer.
- When/if I move, I know I will move back to my hometown, a small and quiet place that still has light pollution, but nowhere near as much.
- I know that the time I saw Jupiter through my grandfather’s telescope, I stood outside in the cold and cried.
- I know outer space makes me happy in a way nothing else does.
- I believe aliens exist and are watching us, waiting for us to do something interesting or inspired before they make contact.
- And, I believe aliens exist and are watching us, waiting for to expose how stupid we are before they destroy us.
- I know I want the first option to be true, because that’s what happened in Star Trek.
- I know that the future painted in Star Trek isn’t perfect, but it is optimistic and full of hope and no one ever gives up.
- I know I am an optimist, as much as the world makes me angry and scared and sad, and as much as my mind is sometimes dark.
- I know the darkness in my mind is made up of lies and fear and pain.
- And I know that darkness is false.
- I know it’s hard to ignore that irrational voice, and I know it’s easy to get lost in the darkness.
- I believe getting lost in fiction instead is better.
- Sometimes, I wish I could disappear into a fictional world.
- I know I’ve made fictional worlds places I feel safe.
- I believe I started writing to create new safe spaces for myself, to explore the imaginary worlds I had been creating since childhood, and to, one day, hopefully provide safe spaces for others.
- I believe bad things can happen in safe fictional spaces, but what makes them safe is knowing good will always win.
- I wish things were as certain in the real world.
- But, until they are, I know I have my bubbles—the worlds of the MCU and Star Trek, and countless games and movies and books besides.
- It surprises a lot of people, but I know I’ll reread, rewatch, and replay the things that make me happiest.
- I don’t know if this is the best way to cope with the darkness, but I know it alleviates the worst of it.
- I know my life could be a lot worse.
- I know I am a white woman, who never has to face the barriers race can create.
- I know I will face barriers based on my sex and gender, and I know they won’t be as bad as they are for women of colour.
- I know I have a duty to use my voice and position to protect and fight for those who must deal with those barriers, and I know that it won’t be easy, but it’s necessary to make the world a better place.
- I believe the world can be a better place.
- I believe that dismantling our current systems and rebuilding them anew is the only way to do that.
- I believe it can happen, but I also believe it won’t in my lifetime.
- I know that money will make my life easier, relieve much of the anxiety and stress that plagues me.
- I know I hate that that is true.
- I wish it wasn’t true.
- I know the traumas I have suffered have left a mark on me that will never go away.
- I believe I can help that mark fade with hard work and by finding joy wherever I can.
- I believe, as long as no one is being hurt, people should be left alone to enjoy what they enjoy, because happiness is hard enough to find without someone trying to squash it.
- I know you can love something and be critical of it at the same time, and you should be constructively critical of the things you love.
- I believe in thinking someone’s intentions are good until given reason to believe otherwise.
- I believe people need to be held accountable for things they say and do, regardless of intent, but that the intent behind actions can dictate how they are held accountable.
- I also believe people need to be allowed to make mistakes, apologize, and be given space to learn, grow, and change.
- I believe in second chances.
- I believe in giving second chances to books, movies, television shows, and games that I may have not connected with the first time.
- I believe media changes as we change, and that the rereading, rewatching, replaying some find so odd is the only way to learn new things from familiar books, movies, shows, and games.
- I believe art is the best thing humanity can do.
- I believe science is the most necessary thing humanity can do.
- I know humanity can’t survive without either.
- I believe those who reject science and don’t engage with art are doomed to a life of ignorance and boredom.
- I know maintaining my mental health depends on me not allowing those people to get to me.
- I know that’s easier said than done.
- I know I am extremely empathetic and feel things intensely.
- I believe the fact that my body’s default response to anger and stress is to cry means people don’t take me as seriously.
- I believe these are my issues and I must work harder than some to be happy, because shutting out the world is not an option for me.
- I know the things that make me feel better might not always work.
- I know I don’t like change and stepping outside of my comfort zone makes me anxious.
- I also know I have to step outside of my comfort zone so I can learn, grow, and change.
- I believe life should be a mix of the serious and the frivolous and there’s too much emphasis on the former.
- I know I struggle to balance the two.
- I wish the internet and social media didn’t promote dehumanization and cruelty to others the way it does.
- I believe you also know I struggle to balance the heavy and the light, the serious and the fun.
- I believe I will lighten things up a bit to finish this off.
- I believe I will always love thunderstorms, the way the world smells right before and right after it rains, and that the blue hour of twilight will always feel like home.
- I believe I will always be irrationally afraid of tornadoes.
- I wish I could share the way I feel during the first real snow of the year.
- I wish I could share the way I feel when I walk through the rain on a warm day with my face turned to the sky.
- I know the smell of books comforts me like nothing else.
- I believe you can be homesick for places you’ve never been, and that it’s a bone-deep feeling that cannot be described.
- I believe the meaning of life can be found whenever you get lost in a book, movie, show, or game.
- Or when you lay in the middle of a field, stare up at the sky, and listen to the world around you.
- Or when you stand in the driveway, late at night, underdressed in the cold, staring up at a small fraction of the aurora borealis that’s reached its way to your small town that’s too far south, because you’ve never seen something so beautiful as that bit of shifting red and green and pink.
- I know pain can be permanent, but so can happiness, and that life should be spent in search of joy.
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vampires, spaceships, and fantastical worlds—the tales of L.E. Teetzel 
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