Chemical Hearts Quotes

Henry (narrating) When you’re a teenager, the chemicals in your brain drive you to make decisions that rip you away from the safety of your childhood and drag you into the wilderness of adulthood. A friend once told me that adults are just scarred kids who were lucky enough to make it out of teenage limbo alive. I urge you to go outside and look at the world through that prism. Look at your parents, your older siblings. Look at strangers you pass on the street. Look at them and imagine that, at one point in their lives, they too walked these halls. They too felt the unbearable loneliness, the absolute unbearable powerlessness and darkness of being young. We tend to think of scars as ugly or imperfect… as things we want to hide or forget. But they never go away. As I write this, my last editorial in my last issue released on my last day of high school, I finally understand that scars are not reminders of what’s been broken, but rather of what’s been created.

Sadie (sighs) You want the good news or the bad news?

Henry Neither.

Sadie Well, the bad news is it’s gonna hurt. Your brain has gotten used to a steady stream of dopamine and oxytocin.

Henry Here we go again.

Sadie Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, but that’s what causes all those blissed-out feelings of love. And now it’s replaced with stress hormones. They’re gonna make you feel like garbage. Headaches, tight muscles, tight chest. Your body’s craving those feel-good chemicals. It’s basically withdrawal.

Grace I used to be good at socializing. I mean, I used to do it all the time.

Henry What changed?

Grace I guess I stopped seeing the point. Sometimes it’s just easier to slip into your own dark abyss and forget the world exists.

Grace You’re somewhere between being a kid and an adult, and the world, uh, tells you to express yourself, but the minute that you do, it tells you to shut up.