Fionnáin quoted Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Aleksievich
We're accustomed to thinking that while our future is a mystery, the past is something that we can explain. It either happened or it didn't... For me, everything came into question... what if none of it had ever really happened? Like it was all just a film reel turning and then it stopped... I can pinpoint the moments in my life that feel like they never happened.
— Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Aleksievich (Page 559)
The beautiful words of a young man who has fallen in love. This is from the second half of his story. The first half is about his more miserable time as a recruit in the Russian army in the early 2000s. The change in tone, and in language, is impressive from misery to joy, and this becomes a heartening tale.