by Debbie ChanI never understood how joy came alongside with reading because when I was a child, reading was a task. Reading was a check mark away from my “to do list” and it was like a chore. My opinions, however, changed when I was in the third grade. I fell in love with how my teacher, Mrs. A, read and how each word, when read, flowed into its right place and ignited curiosity of the characters. The years after the third grade became more and more fruitful in enjoying the world a book can provide. I was a very fortunate kid to have been surrounded by people who loved and valued books and it was a privilege to be able to read, let alone be able to own books. Picture Credit: Debbie Chan Slaughter house five was the book I had no choice of picking whether if I wanted to read it or not, because the book was assigned to everyone in my English class. Although the book made me a frustrated reader, with perseverance the book has changed me as a writer. In high school, I was someone who only wrote poems or song lyrics because that was where I had my foundation with literature. I grew up reading poets like Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson, and I have tried writing short stories, but I would never be able to make them into a finished product. When I read Slaughterhouse five, something changed in me and I was inspired by the writing style Kurt Vonnegut had. The book was filled with confusing thoughts and the transitions between sentences, ideas, and settings were abrupt, but that was what made it so interesting to read. The protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, was a war veteran. When reading the book, the story would never make any sense, not until you finish it and reflect about what you read. It was so clear that Billy had post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, who would think that the writing reflected on that so perfectly. The abrupt changes of setting made me as a reader feel the confusion and frustration Billy felt when that happened to him. I want to be a writer who can set do exactly what Vonnegut did. I want to be able to reflect my writing onto the reader and make them the extension of the main protagonist of the story. This book has made me the better writer I was yesterday. Picture Credit: Debbie Chan I didn’t grow up in a Christian household. I somehow found my way to love Christ when I was in high school when I join this youth group because my cousin was in it. The Five People you meet in Heaven made me curious about how I was living and saw my life. I had the cliché questions about what my purpose in life was, or what did it mean to live a meaningful and fulfilled life. When I read this book in high school, I didn’t wonder upon questions about my life beyond high school, because that wasn’t my priority. I didn’t see how vulnerable all of our lives were. Even experiencing deaths in my family, I never thought beyond my own death and that there was a high chance death wouldn’t pay me a visit. The thought of my own death never crossed my mind. Growing up, all I heard were people hoping that I live a long, fulfilled, and meaningful life, and that was my thought of what reality was. That everyone lived a long, fulfilled, and meaningful life, but this doesn’t always happen. I was just never affected personally to not see this happen because everyone that I knew who passed away were old. As young as I can remember, I had thoughts of my existence and wondered if there were things beyond this would for us, but I didn’t know what to call it. It wasn’t until I looked at colleges I had interest in applying to and saw, under majors, Philosophy. I began to be curious about what this subject was and what it entailed. The way of living and questioning everything in this world was what Eddie, protagonist, did he was at his final moments on earth. Picture Credit: Debbie Chan One day caught my eye, because I saw Anne Hathaway on the cover of the book. I had a few close friends in high school, but one was closer then the others. This friend was like a brother to me and our relationship was like salt and pepper. The book talked about the work of two friends and like them, my friendship with my friend included unnecessary drama that resulted in almost breaking our friendship. The chemistry between the the two protagonist, Dexter and Emma, reminded me that if the friendship was meant to be, it will reveal itself with time. I believe in the saying that if something was meant to be than it was meant to be, however, it doesn’t mean that you don’t work for it. I never counted myself as a romantic, but I surely have learned a few things about what taking care of a meaningful relationship means. I learned that friendship, not only takes time, but it is not instantaneous. A friendship is not an instant gratification thing, because you need to build it like a house.
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