12 Comments
User's avatar
Wise girl Inc.'s avatar

“What happens when I meet my potential? What if it was never actually there in the first place?” You basically described me right now. Thank you for this beautiful piece.

Lara's avatar
3dEdited

“I am all potential and no execution”. Woweee, hits hard. As I sit with a Substack account, year after year, with nothing published on it. Beautiful piece, thank you x

Oenone's avatar

Maybe this is the nudge you need!!! X

Hannah Wendy (she/they)'s avatar

this is really beautiful. i have followed you for literal years and idk, this feels really fucking honest x

Oenone's avatar

Awh thank you Hannah x

Rosie's avatar

Oo as I said on Insta - sorry for this, sounds painful. But thank you again for reading and recommending Dandelion. De-light-ed x x

Oenone's avatar

Thank you for writing, the characters are still with me & I miss them tbh! X

Chloe Grace Laws's avatar

Wow beautiful written and feel I very aligned with all the above (including ankle injury lol!!)

Oenone's avatar

Maybe the universe is trying to tell us something through our ankles! (And thank you x.)

Keshia's avatar

Stunning.

Bella Foxwell's avatar

Oh Oenone, you are such a beautiful writer (despite what you may believe!). I can't WAIT to read your future novel. I relate *so* much to fizzing with lots of ideas and not having enough time to complete them all. And I too get caught up in other authors' incredible writing, so much so that I almost always end up wondering why I'm bothering to try and write at all.

Case in point -- have you read the completely wonderful Slanting Towards The Sea by Lidija Hilje? You will love it, and there's a quote in there about potential that I thought of while reading your piece.

"I can’t remember the last time someone said I had potential. But the thing about potential is that it doesn’t go away. If you fail to realize it, you don’t simply lose it. Instead, it sediments inside you, like tar or asbestos, slowly releasing its poison."