“Stop thinking that everyone is having more sex than you, that everyone has more friends than you, that everyone out is having more fun than you. Not because it’s not true (it might be!) but because that kind of thinking leaves you frozen.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Sex, Relationships, Envy, Friendship, Friends
“When you’re in your 20s, you change. A lot. I know this sounds ridiculous, but like I’m 26 and whenever I meet someone who’s 22 or 23 — even if I love them — I’m just like, “Go back into the oven because you aren’t done yet.” Three years do make a major difference in your 20s because every year is l…”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Relationships, Change, Growing Up, Falling In Love
“As far as I can tell, there are three guarantees in life: death, taxes, and someone deciding they don't love you anymore.”— Ryan O'Connell, amazon.comTagged: Pessimism, Harsh Truths, Reality Check
“I don’t know if you ever get better. I don’t know if a person can just wake up one day and decide to be an active participant in their life. I’d like to think so. I’d like to think that people get better each and every day but that’s not really true. People get worse and it’s their stories that end…”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Getting Better, Change, normalcy, sickness
“All of those fears you had in the past, those vintage anxieties that kept you up in 2004, where are they now? That’s right, they’re gone. You killed all of them. You got over it. You lived.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Future, Fear, Anxiety
“You’ll have moments with someone that are so intense, it’ll feel like you’ve been electrocuted back to life. You’ll hold on to these moments for a long time. They’ll give you hope when you’re going through the motions.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Happiness, Joy, Life, 20s
“The only way you can ensure having a good future is by living a good present. That’s it. That’s the secret to getting exactly what you want out of life.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Future, present, live in the moment, Life
“Do you want it bad enough? Does the fear of being filled with regret in your thirties trump your fear of living today?”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Life, chances, Regret, Taking Chances, Growing Up
“If you’re fortunate enough, you will find a person who sees this world in the exact same way that you do.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Friendship, Life, Friends, Love
“It’s so painful to have loved someone once and then never again. Sometimes you’ll wish it never happened just so you didn’t know how good it felt. Then you remember that quote ‘It’s better to have loved and lost than to have ever loved at all’ and you’re like, ‘okay, fine.'”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, humor, Breakups, Pain, Relationships
“It’s taboo to admit that you’re lonely.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Loneliness, Friendship, Belonging, Meaning, Relationships
“You will never love someone quite the same way you do the first time. In most cases, this is a good thing. The first time is fucking insane.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, First Love, Relationships, Falling In Love
“It is possible to love someone who doesn’t love you back. It’s not a full love, it doesn’t have a whole lot of depth, but it’s still there.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Unrequited Love, Relationships, Healthy Love
“Everyone is an idiot when it comes to matters of the heart. Love is the great equalizer. Whenever you feel intimidated by someone’s coolness, just imagine them sobbing in their bedroom after someone broke their heart. I guarantee it’s happened.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Relationships, Heartbreak, Heartache
“Falling in love is nature’s drug and you can OD on it.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Drug, Relationships, Infatuation, Obsession
“Everyone wants to be loved. Everyone wants to rely on someone. For a lot of people, it’s their Achilles heel. Love is the reason why they made most of their mistakes.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Relationships, Equalizer, Mistakes
“Love will make you into the best and worst version of yourself, often in the same night.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Relationships
“There will be periods in your life when sex will answer a lot of questions for you. It will make everything clearer. There will also be times, however, when sex enables your downfall and leaves you feeling more devastated and confused than you were to begin with. That’s just the way it is. Sex serve…”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Sex, Self-Concept, Self-Love
“Where were you the first time sex left you hating yourself? When was the first time sex left you feeling drained instead of full, warm, and happy?”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Sex
“I don’t believe in love at first sight but I do believe in seeing someone from across the room and knowing instantly that they’re going to matter to you. They’re going to play a major role in your life.”— Ryan O’Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love at First Sight, Relationships, Lust, Love
“It’s hard for me to explain this to you in a way that will make one hundo percent sense, but I’ll try. Until recently, maybe in the last year or so, I didn’t understand that life could be good. It wasn’t like I was against happiness. I just didn’t think it was an option for someone like me.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Happiness, Life
“Finding love is the unconscious motivator for a lot of the things we do. It’s why we work out, it’s why we go to a bar on a Saturday night when we really don’t want to, it’s why we agree to meet strangers off the internet.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, motivation, Relationships
“The things you have in your life that make you feel unlovable and small can go away. They have as much power as you give them.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Life, Love, Self-Love, Being Loved, Unloveable
“You’re going to lose touch with a lot of your friends. With some people, it will be expected but with others it will feel like a punch to the stomach. No friendship is truly safe in your twenties. Don’t worry though. You’ll end up with the ones that matter. If someone’s no longer in your life, it’s…”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Friendship, Twenties, Losing Friends
“You’ll be jealous of everyone who’s more successful than you. That’s okay. Just transfer that jealousy into something productive, like working really hard so you can one day eclipse them and make them feel jealous of YOU.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Jealousy, Success, Working Hard, Productivity
“You’re going to betray your convictions. You’re going to feel shame. You’re going to continue to put yourself in situations that aren’t good for you. And then, slowly but surely, it will become less frequent. It might not ever go away completely but it won’t be as bad. In the meantime, stop shame sp…”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Shame, Choices, Making The Wrong Choices, morals, Life
“Loving yourself is hard. Hating yourself is harder.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Hate, Self-Love, Self-Acceptance, Self-hatred
“You’ll always care about your first love. That doesn’t make you crazy, it just makes you human. When relationships end, it’s not so cut and dry. You carry everyone you’ve ever loved into every relationship thereafter.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Relationships, Love, First Love, Falling In Love
“The second time you fall in love with someone, you’re going to feel so relieved.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Second Love, First Love, Relationships, Moving On
“When someone gives you their heart, they’re also giving you permission to destroy them. It’s never articulated but it’s understood that the possibility is always there.”— Ryan O'Connell, thoughtcatalog.comTagged: Love, Pain, Breakups