12/7/08

Dear Friend,
For my English class I was required to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. This book is about a high school freshman going through his first year of school and all the challenges that school brings teenagers. He deals with drugs, friends, siblings, and even his sister’s abortion.
My two favorite scenes are in the beginning of the book and at the very end in the epilogue. The first scene is when he goes to his first high school party. This is one of my favorite parts of the book because I believe this to be a very exciting part in people’s high school experience. Also I can relate to this situation because his first high school party was very much like mine. Except I didn’t make use of the drugs that were available. This was also a funny scene because he takes drugs and gets his first high. But we also begin to learn the degree of his mental instability when, for the first time in the book, “everything starts spinning”. We don’t know what this means until the end of the book when he has his nervous breakdown. But he gets fairly close here and I myself was left questioning the term “spinning”. My favorite part of this book is in the epilogue when Sam and Brad pick up Charlie and take him through a ride in tunnel. When he stands up in the back of the truck when they are driving through the tunnel I put myself in his shoes and I felt completely free like I wasn’t even sitting down reading the book. I just forgot where I was for that moment and pictured myself moving through that tunnel not a care in the world, just enjoying the moment.
One of the most significant parts of the book was when he took his sister to the clinic to get her abortion. Even though him and his sister didn’t get along very well Charlie did the right thing by here and took his sister. This part of the book really put an emphasis on family and how important family is in hard times. Who knows what would have happened if Charlie’s sister had to talk to her mom and dad about her pregnancy. But Charlie was there for his sister and after this event they became closer for the rest of the book and remained close.
In my opinion the ending of the book was not what I expected. The way the book was shaping up I thought he was going to die or worse. But he ends up having a mental breakdown and has to recover in the hospital. But this is when you figure out what all the “spinning” means and this is also the same thing that happened when his aunt died, which he explains at the beginning of the book. All in all this entire book is a defiant read for you or anyone willing to set aside the time to read a book.

letter four

Dear Friend,
Staying Focused

#1: “Headstrong” – Trapt
#2: “Animal I have become” – Three Days Grace
#3: “Stricken” – Disturbed
#4: “So Cold” – Breaking Benjamin
#5: “Faint” – Linkin Park
#6: “Bullets” – Creed
#7: “Guarded” – Disturbed
#8: “No More Sorrow” – Linkin Park
#9: “Breath” – Breaking Benjamin
#10: “Headstrong” - Trapt
The reason why song one and ten are the same are because they really get you to keep you mind on the goal and to “stay focused” on whatever you are doing. I hope you can listen to this mix when you are really distracted from what you are doing and that it can put you back on track.

My Grandpa has the best chuckle
My mom loves to chat about anything at Sunday brunch
My brother is the best at arguing
My Grandma is always happy to see me
My best friend is the best at making me laugh

october 7, 2008

Dear Friend,


When I was in High School my dad used to take me and my little brother on road trips, separately of course. He would always take us places around the west coast and they would always be the highlights of our summers. The last road trip my father and I went on was to California. We spent a whole day at the farmers market in Santa Monica Beach. It was one of the best days in my life. I always knew that these trips were a time for us to relax and enjoy each other’s company. But I never realized that these were actually the only true “bonding” times that I had with my father. Now that I think of it the only times outside of these road trips that my father and I spent time were at meals and church. I finally understand how important these trips to him really were.

During my freshman year of high school I learned a very important lesson about friendship. I had been friends with this person named Dan since 5th grade. We had played pee-wee football together and now were entering high school together. It was around thanksgiving when he first asked me to smoke pot with him. Without hesitation I said no, and after this incident we began to drift apart. After about a month of not hanging out I called him and asked him if I had done something to drive him away. To my surprise he didn’t say anything and he just hung up the phone, which was the last I spoke to him. What I learned from this friendship is you never can tell if a person is your friend until you are put in a strenuous situation.

Looking at the stars I feel infinite. Knowing that space never ends and there are so many planets. It just blows my mind every time I think about it. It’s hard to wrap my head around the idea “space never ends”. It keeps going and going and going, it’s the only thing that never has an end. When I look at the stars I feel so small and insignificant in the scheme of life.

Sincerely,
Jimbo