Jessica Posner Quotes

#1. In my own eyes, I could only see how ridiculous I looked. How typical white-girl-goes-to-Africa. But in their eyes, the hair was a way to make me part of them, at least for a moment.

Jessica Posner

#2. They say love is supposed to set you free, but I think love binds you. It's only once you're so full of joy that you can imagine a devastation of loss.

Jessica Posner

#3. While I live my life expecting to live, others expect that they might die. The rules of the world are not the same for all of us.

Jessica Posner

#4. I think of what it means to be a teenager in America, necessarily pushing boundaries, making expected mistakes. Here there is no margin for error: a mistake, no matter how insignificant, dashes any small hopes to break the cycle of poverty. Here in Kibera the world is relentless and unforgiving.

Jessica Posner

#5. No matter how much time I spend here I can't escape the whiteness of my skin, the way I stand out no matter what I do. But it's more than my skin. It's my privilege.

Jessica Posner

#6. Ever since I was a child my reaction to the forbidden has been a stubborn desire to keep pushing: obstacles make something uncontrollably and deeply necessary.

Jessica Posner

#7. There is a whole mythology, a set of rules and issues surrounding a relationship like ours, that sneaks in uninvited.

Jessica Posner