19 Love Songs
Page 25
I am the boy who never imagined words I use
could make strangers feel less strange and less estranged.
I am the boy whose kind parents were the kind of parents
who let him meet as much of the world as he could find on a page,
because there was nothing on a page
that couldn’t be found somewhere in the world, in some way.
You gave me words.
Which is how I know you are here for:
The child who grows up in a house that values noise over conversation.
The child who has been taught to disregard science and reason.
The child who has been given shame instead of pride.
The child who was born into the wrong body and has been told it can never change.
The child whose beliefs are never believed.
Like them, I thank you.
I thank you in all those moments that feel thankless.
I thank you in all those moments when you feel you will not win.
I thank you because person by person, word by word into life after life,
you do win.
You have not chosen this path because it is easy or luxurious.
You have chosen this path because it matters.
It matters to us all.
The loudmouths and the deeply shaken.
The survivors and the ones who need to be prepared
for the tragedy that hasn’t happened yet.
The marginalized and the ones who need to know
what the margins look like, since they cannot see them
from the tower.
The rebels and the choir girls and the rebel choir girls.
The heartbroken and the innocently mistaken.
The reluctant and the avid and everyone in between.
We thank you.
Thank you for leading us to the truth.
Thank you for fighting when you need to fight.
Thank you for encouraging when you aren’t obligated to encourage.
Thank you for believing in us.
Thank you for believing we matter.
Thank you for this freedom.
And most of all, thank you for giving us words.
Liner Notes
Many of these stories first appeared in other anthologies. I would like to thank all the editors of those books, because it is highly unlikely any of the stories would exist without their interest and guidance.
“Quiz Bowl Antichrist” first appeared in the anthology Geektastic, edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci.
“The Good Girls” first appeared, in slightly different form, in the anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, edited by Melissa de la Cruz and Tom Dolby.
“The Quarterback and the Cheerleader” first appeared in the tenth-anniversary edition of Boy Meets Boy.
“Your Temporary Santa” first appeared in the anthology My True Love Gave to Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins.
“A Better Writer” first appeared, in altered form and with a different title, in the anthology Crush, edited by Andrea N. Richesin.
“A Brief History of First Kisses” first appeared in the anthology First Kiss (Then Tell), edited by Cylin Busby.
“As the Philadelphia Queer Youth Choir Sings Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’…” first appeared in the anthology Proud, compiled by Juno Dawson and edited by Rachel Bodeen.
“The Vulnerable Hours” first appeared in the anthology Up All Night, edited by Laura Geringer.
“The Hold” first appeared in the anthology It’s a Whole Spiel, edited by Katherine Locke and Laura Silverman.
“We” first appeared, in altered form, in the anthology Hope Nation, edited by Rose Brock.
“Give Them Words” was written for the Freedom to Read Foundation’s forty-fifth anniversary. For more about the Freedom to Read Foundation and all the amazing work it does, go to ftrf.org.
Many of the stories not listed above started as ones I wrote for my friends for Valentine’s Day, a tradition that began my junior year of high school and continues to this day, many years after. The friends who’ve received these stories are far too numerous to mention here, but I thank them all for their friendship and encouragement.
Usually in my books’ acknowledgments, I thank the friends who’ve sat across from me as I wrote them…but the stories in here span a decade, so once again it’s impossible for me to list everyone. I would, however, like to thank Lawrence Uhling for helping me get all the stories together and Billy Merrell for always being there for me and my stories.
To reiterate the dedication and Track Seventeen—I love and thank my parents very much, for everything.
Thanks as well to everyone at Random House, the Clegg Agency, and my foreign publishers, for all their support. And thanks once again to my longtime editor, Nancy Hinkel. Let the centuries fall where they may; I’m happy to have decades with you.
DAVID LEVITHAN’s many acclaimed novels include Someday, Another Day, Every Day, Two Boys Kissing, and Boy Meets Boy, along with the collaborations Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist and Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares (both written with Rachel Cohn) and Will Grayson, Will Grayson (written with John Green). David is a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award.
DAVIDLEVITHAN.COM
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