the love we have shared. i have grown so much by your side and i cherish

every single memory. thank you for being my best friend, my favorite

person, my emerald green.

to all the teachers i have had over the years—deborah sogin, ryan marsh,

dr. mark kano, dr. angelique clay, nan mcswain, dr. hetzel, dr. johnson,

beth wilson, chelsea bugg, and so many more—thank you, from the

bottom of my heart, for all that you have taught me. i would not be who i

am today without you. though many of you were or are my voice teachers

or choral directors, you’ve also had an impact on who i am as a writer.

you encouraged me to be myself, to love life unabashedly, to chase my

dreams. you have also been some of my biggest fans since i started writing

books and i know that you will always be in my corner, cheering me on,

wherever life takes me.

to trista mateer, amanda lovelace, cyrus parker, zane frederick, caitlin

conlon and the wonderful poetry community, i have looked up to so

many of you for such a long time, and the fact that i can call many of you

a friend now is still a surreal feeling. thank you for welcoming a young

18-year-old girl with open arms in 2017 and for providing your advice,

support, and friendship ever since. special thank-you to trista for editing

this book and being an amazing mentor and friend.

to caroline, signe, jaden, emily, samia, ashton, grace, lauren, and sarah,

you guys are my original poet family. we’ve built a bond that only comes

with reading each other’s angsty (and sometimes bad) poetry when we

were teenagers. and now we’re all grown up. i know some of you don’t

write anymore, or as much, but you’ll always be poets to me. i’m so glad

we still keep in touch.

and finally, to all of my readers, thank you. thank you, thank you, thank

you. it doesn’t matter if you’ve been reading my work since i was thirteen

or if this book was your first time; thank you. i never could have expected

to reach so many people with my writing. when i first started writing, i

thought just a few hundred people would enjoy it enough to follow me. i

never thought i would have an audience of a few hundred thousand. you

have changed my life in so many ways. it is perhaps my greatest joy to

create art that has helped you smile, laugh, grieve, and heal. here’s to the

past seven years, and the many more to come. i love you.

about the author

Catarine Hancock is a 21-year-old Kentucky native. She has garnered an audience of over 200,000 on social media in the past six years she has been sharing her work online. Catarine writes predominantly about love and its many aspects, both the good and the bad, as well as political topics that are dear to her heart, such as feminism and gun control. She is an activist, college student, and opera singer as well as a writer, and attends the University of Kentucky as a Vocal Performance major. Her first two collections, the boys i’ve loved and the end of the world (2017) and how the words come (2018) are no longer in print but can be read for free on her Wattpad. Her third collection, shades of lovers (2020), can be bought wherever books are sold.