“Everyone wants you here. We have a saying in Farsi. It translates ‘your place was empty.’ We say it when we miss somebody."I sniffed."Your place was empty before. But this is your family. You belong here.”
―
Adib Khorram,
Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“Suicide isn't the only way you can lose someone to depression.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“How could I be a tourist in my own past?” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“Being depressed doesn’t mean I’m not happy. It’s like, happy is one color. And depressed is another color. And you can paint happy, and then paint a little depression around the edges.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Deserves Better
“You don’t care what anyone thinks. You know?”My ears burned. “I care what everyone thinks, Sohrab.”“No you don’t. Not really. You don’t try to change yourself. You know who you are.” He bumped shoulders with me. “I wish I was like that. I always try to be what my mom needs. What my amou needs. What you need. But you are the opposite. You are happy with who you are.”I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s really me. You’ve never seen what it’s like back home. How everyone treats me.”“They don’t know you, Darioush.” Sohrab grabbed my shoulder. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.”“I wish you could see yourself too.” I swallowed. “You’re the only person who never wanted me to change.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“I wanted to know what our family's stories were. I wanted to know the things Mom wouldn't think to tell me. Things she knew but never said out loud, because they were a part of her. I wanted to know what made the Bahrami family special.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“The thing is, I never had a friend like Sohrab before. One who understood me without even trying. Who knew what it was like to be stuck on the outside because of one little thing that set you apart.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“I was one tiny pulsar in a swirling, luminous galaxy of Iranians, held together by the gravity of thousands of years of culture and heritage.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“Ghorbanat beram is one of those perfect Farsi phrases you can’t quite translate into English. The closest thing is: I would give my life for yours. Sometimes it was just hyperbole. But for Sohrab, it was literal. And it was literal for me too. That is what it means to have a best friend.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Deserves Better
“But the wall weren't just inside of him.They were between us. I didn't know how to breach them.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“In theory, taarof means putting others before yourself. In practice, it means when someone comes to your house, you have to offer them food; but since your guest is supposed to taarof, they have to refuse; and then you, the host, must taarof back, insisting that it's really no trouble at all, and that they absolutely must eat; and so on, until one party gets too bewildered and finally gives in... It's not an American Social Cue. When Mom met Dad's parents for the first time, they offered her a drink, which she politely declined- and that was that. She really did want something to drink, but she didn't know how to go about asking.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“You deserve people in your life who make you happy, Darius. No matter what. Just remember that. Okay?” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Deserves Better
“...love was and opportunity, not a burden.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“You’re the only person who never wanted me to change.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“I had never been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, but Dr. Howell said that anxiety and depression often went hand in hand. Comorbidity, he called it. It was an ominous-sounding word. It made me anxious.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“That’s what being depressed does. It’s like a supermassive black hole between your sense of self and your actual self, and all you can see is the way you look through the gravitational lensing of your own inadequacies. “Hey.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Deserves Better
“I wanted to die. I wasn’t allowed to say that, not out loud. The one time I did—and it was only hyperbole—Dad freaked out and threatened to send me to a hospital. “Don’t ever joke about that, Darius.” I didn’t really want to die, anyway. I just wanted to slip into a black hole and never come out.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“We were friends back then, in the way that everyone is friends in kindergarten, before sociopolitical alliances begin to cement, and then, by the time third grade rolls around, you find yourself spending every game of Heads Down, Thumbs Up with your head down and your thumb up, completely ignored by your entire class until you begin to wonder if you've turned invisible.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“love was an opportunity, not a burden.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“Suicide isn't the only way you can lose someone to depression.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“How could I be a tourist in my own past?” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“Being depressed doesn’t mean I’m not happy. It’s like, happy is one color. And depressed is another color. And you can paint happy, and then paint a little depression around the edges.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Deserves Better
“You don’t care what anyone thinks. You know?”My ears burned. “I care what everyone thinks, Sohrab.”“No you don’t. Not really. You don’t try to change yourself. You know who you are.” He bumped shoulders with me. “I wish I was like that. I always try to be what my mom needs. What my amou needs. What you need. But you are the opposite. You are happy with who you are.”I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s really me. You’ve never seen what it’s like back home. How everyone treats me.”“They don’t know you, Darioush.” Sohrab grabbed my shoulder. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.”“I wish you could see yourself too.” I swallowed. “You’re the only person who never wanted me to change.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“I wanted to know what our family's stories were. I wanted to know the things Mom wouldn't think to tell me. Things she knew but never said out loud, because they were a part of her. I wanted to know what made the Bahrami family special.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“The thing is, I never had a friend like Sohrab before. One who understood me without even trying. Who knew what it was like to be stuck on the outside because of one little thing that set you apart.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“I was one tiny pulsar in a swirling, luminous galaxy of Iranians, held together by the gravity of thousands of years of culture and heritage.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“Ghorbanat beram is one of those perfect Farsi phrases you can’t quite translate into English. The closest thing is: I would give my life for yours. Sometimes it was just hyperbole. But for Sohrab, it was literal. And it was literal for me too. That is what it means to have a best friend.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Deserves Better
“But the wall weren't just inside of him.They were between us. I didn't know how to breach them.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“In theory, taarof means putting others before yourself. In practice, it means when someone comes to your house, you have to offer them food; but since your guest is supposed to taarof, they have to refuse; and then you, the host, must taarof back, insisting that it's really no trouble at all, and that they absolutely must eat; and so on, until one party gets too bewildered and finally gives in... It's not an American Social Cue. When Mom met Dad's parents for the first time, they offered her a drink, which she politely declined- and that was that. She really did want something to drink, but she didn't know how to go about asking.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“You deserve people in your life who make you happy, Darius. No matter what. Just remember that. Okay?” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Deserves Better
“...love was and opportunity, not a burden.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“You’re the only person who never wanted me to change.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“I had never been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, but Dr. Howell said that anxiety and depression often went hand in hand. Comorbidity, he called it. It was an ominous-sounding word. It made me anxious.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“That’s what being depressed does. It’s like a supermassive black hole between your sense of self and your actual self, and all you can see is the way you look through the gravitational lensing of your own inadequacies. “Hey.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Deserves Better
“I wanted to die. I wasn’t allowed to say that, not out loud. The one time I did—and it was only hyperbole—Dad freaked out and threatened to send me to a hospital. “Don’t ever joke about that, Darius.” I didn’t really want to die, anyway. I just wanted to slip into a black hole and never come out.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“We were friends back then, in the way that everyone is friends in kindergarten, before sociopolitical alliances begin to cement, and then, by the time third grade rolls around, you find yourself spending every game of Heads Down, Thumbs Up with your head down and your thumb up, completely ignored by your entire class until you begin to wonder if you've turned invisible.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
“love was an opportunity, not a burden.” ― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay
