The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

I've given up reading "The Knife of Never Letting Go". Though it has an awesome title, and I'm sure it's written awesomely (is that even a word?), it just wasn't my taste. I did buy the book "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson at my school book fair and read it in a matter of hours. "Speak" is an amazing book that I feel everyone can relate to on some level or another. It really makes you think, and ponder how you live your very own life.

I spent three entire English class periods at the school book fair before finally making my selections. I had heard raving reviews about "Speak" about two years ago, and I actually thought I might have read it already (I hadn't), but on a whim I picked it up from the table without even reading the summary. When I was finished making my purchases I was shocked, I had never been able to do that, never been able to just pick up a book and buy it. I always spend hours reading and re-reading the summaries, the reviews, analyzing what type of book I want to read at any given moment.

Throughout the three class periods I spent agonizing over which books to buy I determined that I wanted a relatable book, and not a book that was all sunshine and rose. I wanted something realistic, and something that wasn't an easy read, so I tended to avoid any of the books that looked too short. Now, "Speak" is not a long book by any means, but I never found myself bored. It was exactly what I was looking for, and I didn't even read the description.

A realization that I had while at the book fair, though, is that the book I've been looking to read for months has not been written yet. Though "Speak" definitely was amazing, and turned out to be perfect, it wasn't the exact book that I had been describing in my mind. I was looking for something that was mostly realistic (but maybe not completely), something that really challenged a person, something that was a higher reading level. A book where the main character has something that they need to overcome, or discover about themselves, a book that isn't necessarily happy the entire time, but a book that leaves you feeling empowered at the end of it. A book that I haven't been able to find.

So with this realization I set to work on my computer. I opened a blank Word document, iTunes, and babynamesworld.com in Internet Explorer. Clicking the shuffle button on iTunes I listened to the lyrics of each of the different songs, and hoped that inspiration would strike. I wasted about a half hour just sitting in front of the computer staring blankly, before giving up for the day. The next day I did the same thing, only this time, I actually came up with an idea.

Sometimes I like to write detailed outlines of a story out, other times I don't like to do any planning. This was one of the times in between. I planned out the two main characters, and had a pretty good idea of what the plot would be in my head, but other than that, there wasn't much planning that I did. I barely have a beginning, just under five pages, double spaced, but I have great plans for this story, and someday hopefully it'll be published.

I've always loved to read and write, but for some reason I had fallen out of touch with them for a while. When I finally read "Speak" and began writing this new story I remembered how much peace I find with words.

"The pen is mightier than the sword"

Words can do so much for someone. They can change a person's opinion, they have the ability to make a person happy or sad, they can empower or demolish someone. Reading and writing can be an escape, if you need them to be, they can be an alternate world to lose yourself in. Let literature scoop you up and entangle you within it's wonders.

Always remember what words can achieve, no matter what.

"The Knife of Never Letting Go": Pre-reading

Today, I finally checked the book "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness. Intrigued by the title I picked it up off of the shelf about a year and a half ago to read the summary on the book jacket, not very hooked by it, I set the book back down carefully and left it be. Since then, many of my friends have told me about what a wonderful book it is, and that I should read it. Though the title really had me pulled in, the description of the book did not, no matter how many good reviews the book got. Once again it was a featured book on the shelves of my school library, and once again I picked it up, trying to decide if I should try it or not. On one hand, I'm an extremely picky reader, on the other hand, so many people had given raving reviews about it.

I decided to finally check it out, figuring that it couldn't be horrible, even if it wasn't my usual reading style. Plus, I really wanted to find out how the title, "The Knife of Never Letting Go," fit into the plot. Ever since I first picked the novel up, the phrase of the title had made me think. Never letting go can be as painful as a knife. It totally made sense to me, since that's one thing that I have a really big difficulty doing, letting go of my past.

I know very well how damaging it can be to try and live in my own memories, and never be willing to admit that most of them are just eras in the past now. It causes horrible feelings, and obvious pain. It is, in a sense, a mental, or emotional, knife. Holding onto everything we know can do no good.

So it is with high hopes that this book expresses some of those thoughts that I begin to read. I'll try to keep you all updated on my findings as I read through, but who knows how long it will take me to get through this novel. If I end up really liking it, I'll have read the entire book in two or three days, if I end up bored out of my mind, it'll take me two or three weeks to get through. So I guess it depends entirely on how much I like the book on how much I update about it. Feel free to join me in the reading of "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness and add your own thoughts in the comments below!

Today, I am Alive

There have been whispers of Judgement Day coming this Saturday, and as I walked up from the bus stop today with my brother and another boy who might as well be my brother too we were kind of joking about it. Out of the three of us, none of us doubt that we'll wake up on Sunday morning, none of us doubt that our families will wake up, and none of us doubt that our friends will wake up. For a moment I had a flash of what it would be like if Saturday really is it. Don't you think we'd all be living our lives a little bit differently?

I know that I take my life for granted. To me, there are no questions about it, I will wake up safe, taken care of, and relatively happy tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, and days and days, and years and years to come. But tomorrow could be it. Tomorrow could be the last page of my story. The last page of my story could be in just one second for all I know. Yet I take my life for granted.

So with these thoughts passing through my mind, my walk up from the bus stop took on a whole new meaning to me. That could have been the last time I ever walk up that hill, the last time I ever kick the wet leaves from the road. I set my mind differently, and I smiled with each step that I took, grinned as I took the mail out of the mailbox, and added an extra bounce in my step.

There's so much that I would do if I knew that tomorrow would be my last day. So many words I would say, so many people I would want to be with, and so many smiles I would give. I wouldn't want to leave this world without leaving my mark, and there are times when I know that I most definitely haven't done that yet. God gave me this life on earth to do something specific, to do His work, to live for Him, before the glorious eternal life I will have in Heaven. There is nothing that we can take for granted, because God had the power to give everything we have to us, and He has the power to take it all away.

So I'm going to start thinking before speaking, smiling before thinking, and listening before saying. I'm not going to regret, and I'm not going to watch life fly by without living it. If we all live like this, we'd all be so much happier, not to mention the wonders of the world that we'd all be living in. So join me in living each day as though it was our last!

Have You Ever Seen "The Other Side"?

“Alright, when I think ''other side'' I think of spirits, ghosts, and apparitions. And as much as a like to read about that kind of stuff, and how much it fascinates me, I have never "seen" the "other side". I’m not really sure what you're getting at by asking me that, but that's the only "other side" I can think of right now.”

“No, I haven’t seen the other side. The other side for me is, like, how people see me.”

“Well truthfully the "other side" makes me think of you know the other side of life... death. And I guess in some ways I have seen the other side as my grandparents have died. But in other ways I haven't.”

“The other side could mean anything from someone else’s point of view to death. I’m a person of simple English, I don’t try to impress people with big fancy words so this isn’t gonna be fancy and complicated. When it comes to seeing other people’s points of view yes I have seen the "other side" but it would be the other side of that discussion of that conversation not so much the big picture. I always try to look at the other side. If you’re going for the more drastic side like death then no I haven’t I’ve read about it I’ve read of people in battle that were close to dying one actually did but the medic was able to bring him back the all say it’s like floating one was saying that it looked like he was walking on light and that someone or thing told him that it wasn’t his time. Another was close but his wound was frozen shut because it was so cold and he said he could see himself his body on the ground and the medic working on him and the bullets passing all around him. I’m not sure if that answered your question I hope it did. So, I guess yes and no.”

“I have seen light. I have seen dark. I have seen yesterday. I have not yet seen tomorrow.”

“The other side. Yeah I feel like I’ve seen the other side. Even though I may only be a teenager I feel that I’ve seen a lot in my sixteen years. I have been through so much, but I feel like the “other side” is not just a “black-white” kind of question. My experiences have led me on this journey – life – and though I’ve caught a glimpse of it, there is only so much more to come.”

“I interpreted the “other side” as a point of view that is not my own personal point of view. Have I ever seen “the other side”? I have tried to see things from others view but no matter how well you try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, your own experiences and ideas seem to get in the way. I think I have attempted to see “the other side” but I believe I am still seeing it as if it was from my point of view and not theirs.”

“That makes me think are the things you are doing in your life meaningful to you and do you yourself feel that your life is meaningful…if not, you have not seen the other side. In order to see the other side you have to believe in your faith and do what you think is right to make your life worth living.”

“Bad versus good.”

“Absolutely. In a world of “maybes” and “kind ofs” it is hard to be certain about anything. One thing that seems easy to take for granted is waking up the next morning being able to breather. When you are shoved into a situation in which that is questioned, you realize how uncertain life can be. All it took was ten minutes of being stuck in rocks to show me that there is life, and then there is death. During my traumatic surf accident I saw my innocent, perfect, All-American life flash before my eyes. This was a side of reality that I had never seen before. So, I suppose you could say that brisk August morning I ‘saw the other side’.”

“I have never seen the other side and hopefully not soon if you know what I mean…but apparently “judgment day” is coming, so we might see it then.”

“I think of heaven (she’s crossed..to the other side) and I see it every day in God’s wonderful creations (not just humans) and just life in general. In love, little bits of heaven.”

“The other side is the ability to see things at a new perspective that’s different from your own!”

“Yes, it’s called a mirror ;)”

“No, I don’t think I have but can any one person really tell you what the other side really is? So would you really know for sure if you had seen the other side or not?”

“If I have seen the other side I feel like I wouldn’t be as confused as I am right now, so the other side is something I probably couldn’t define ‘cause I haven’t seen it.”

“I think that the other side would be the other side of yourself, ‘cause you may grow up knowing and learning everything about yourself until you have that one moment of realization when you know that things have changed and because I’m not the same forever, I now need to get to know the other side of me.”

“No! I think the other side is experienced in a life or death situation!”

“I live a very comfortable life. I have done mission work where I see how hard other people struggle. That is the other side to me.”

“The “other side” to me would be the “single life”. Been there, done that – much rather be married!”

“There’s a possible after life, that’s one way it could be interpreted.”

“I have never seen the other side. To me, it means the other side as in death.”

“Yes, because you can be bullied, but you can also be the bully.”

“I saw the other side once, when God comforted me while hiking through the woods. I sat down and realized everything was calm and beautiful, when I heard God speak to me through the beauty of nature. That, I think, is what the other side means.”

“I saw the other side when I saw my back in the mirror.”

“No, I don’t know what that means.”

“Well, maybe by other side it could be a place where anything can happen. Maybe it’s heaven. But I think that the other side could be in dreams. While asleep dreaming, anything can happen.”

“I have seen the other side of some things, but I don’t know if I’ve seen this side.”

“I think of the other side as ‘the dark side’ and as a bad thing. I think of the other side as being tempted by the devil. I also think of it as the opposite of heaven.”

“The dark side.”

“No, I have not seen the other side. I never seem to understand why this girl, Jane, is so mean to me and I wanna know why.”

“I usually try to see the other side, but sometimes it’s difficult because my perspective is my perspective. While I try to analyze the issue from multiple directions, I am limited by my genetic makeup, my unique set of experiences, and how much sleep I got the night before.”

“No. The other side sounds like where you go when you die. I’ve imagined it, but don’t think I’ve ever been there.”

“I think that yes, I have seen the other side. I feel like that is the other side of life as we know it. Some things are negative with a positive side and the other way around. It is the way someone sees something. A point of view.”

So let me ask you, Have You Ever Seen "The Other Side"?

April Reflections and True Happiness

For English class we have to write a journal entry at the end of each month. The only guidelines are that these entries have to be at least a page long, grammatically correct, and have evidence of reflection. As I wrote mine for the month of April, I realized that the beginning of it, at least, sounded a lot like my blog posts usually do, and I figured I'd write something of the sort for Abby's Abstracts.

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It’s funny how as at the end of each month I look back at what has happened, and I’m completely shocked. You’d think that by now I’d be totally used to the unexpected happening, and expect it to happen. Apparently that’s not quite how it works. I wouldn’t say that the month of April has been a bad month, though. Yeah, it’s most definitely been shocking, but not bad, which shocks me in and of itself.

The truth that I've found this month is that true happiness does not come from looking at what we've done and who we've been, true happiness comes from looking forward to our big, bright futures. The past is the past, and whether it's good or bad, we aren't going to be able to change it or relive it. Our memories can make us smile now and then, but dwelling too much on them is only going to cause each of us strife. I've spent the majority of April planning the Summertime fun that I know I'm going to have, and making decisions to be happy, no matter what. No matter how it seems at certain points in time, it's true that we all do have BIG bright futures!

And who knew, all it took was the quickly approaching summer for me to figure that out? This summer I'm going to have an adventure of self-discovery. I'm going to find who I am, and I'm going to be a teenager. I refuse to be punctual and responsible and the as-close-to-perfect-as-possible person I always have tried so hard to be. I'm still going to be me though, and I know my limits. I'm not going to go crazy or anything, so no worries, but my goal is to find who I truly am, and to focus on the good in life. It's going to be a great summer, I can feel it throughout my whole being.

Alright, so I guess this isn't a reflection on April, but it is a reflection. And it at least starts with talking about April. Oh well, hope y'all enjoy!

Stands for Itself

"He's not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don't need a Savior. He came to save us in our imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He's not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief."

- Chieko Okazaki

While clicking through other blogs, I found this quote, and it really touched me. I'd write a whole post about it, but I feel as though the quote stands for itself.