Have you ever thought, "the person I was yesterday is not the person I am today. The person I will be tomorrow will not be the person I am today" and found it to come true? Do you understand why those changes happened so quickly and without invitation? After reading #1 New York Times Bestselling author Sarah Dessen's "what happened to goodbye", maybe you'll formulate a new path to travel as to why all things change.
Kids today deal with all sorts of issues: trying to fit in with other kids, dealing with the dirty-drama caused by their parents, being made fun of and trying to ignore the harshness of other teens for interactions they themselves had nothing at all to do with. Like Dessen's main character.
Sometimes as they try to fit it and search for the acceptance of others they so badly desire, they sometimes forget who - and what - they are. Sometimes they become manifestations of what they think others want them to be. Sometimes, lets say after an "affair", they move with one parent to a new town and they just say f*** it and live life as the person they truly are. And when they do, they find others who truly love them for that. The only problem with settling back in to ones true self, is trying to find that one true self because he or she is hidden among the personalities created for whomever they were created for.
When any of us have had to deal with uncomfortable situations - be it short lived or continuing - we've all made stories up in our heads to help us deal or deny the truth of the matter. Sometimes it's a different persona of ourselves. Other times it's not. But we still bend the true story of us to try and escape whatever it was causing the uneasy comfort.
But with each new persona we develop, a portion of the abandoned comes along with it. And when all of our original traits finally meet up again somewhere down the road, and we deal with the situations we've been facing or avoiding and accept others in to our lives and trust that they will not hurts us, we're surprisingly overcome with happiness and joy again.
For those of you who are completely lost and feel this to be a rant and rave, everything I've just written about describes to a T, main character Mclean Sweet.
This text will help young adult readers to see "home" is not a tri-level ranch house in the country. Nor is it a 14-bedroom mansion in the hills. "Home" is where your heart is. And where your heart is, is the same place you'll find many people who care for, think of and love you.
The book was published by Penguin Group on a fine paper which feels soothing to the touch.
3 comments:
This reminds me of Sandra Cisneros "The House on Mango Street" with the home in the heart. One of the characters tells Esperanza to not forget her street, to not forget her people and to carry them in her heart. I am interested in your book, and I do agree teenagers are exposed to uncomfortable situations that draw them away from their home, but the heart is the place to follow and listen in the pursuit of knowing yourself. Thank you for your post!
"But with each new persona we develop, a portion of the abandoned comes along with it. And when all of our original traits finally meet up again somewhere down the road, and we deal with the situations we've been facing or avoiding and accept others in to our lives and trust that they will not hurts us, we're surprisingly overcome with happiness and joy again" these words struck a chord in me because we all are in uncomfortable situations at moments and we forget about ourselves. It is in those moments when we come to accept ourselves that we truly experience joy.
It sounds like this book is about finding ones identity. I read a "Pretty Ugly" that has a similar theme. Books like these are great reads for teens that are doing just that-realizing who they are and who they want to be.
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