I am officially a "Girl" now.

    I am now one among the throngs of girls who have read and responded to Nicholas Sparks' novel, The Notebook. Now, I have never seen the movie, and I didn't want to see it without giving myself a chance to develop my own characters in my head before I was doomed to always picture the movie stars every time I read the book. Of course, I knew who played the characters, but I hadn't seen them actually in character yet, so I was fine.
    Anyways, I read the book and I loved it. Granted, I felt like every stereotypical girl while I was reading it, but I didn't care. That's how much I adored it. And I felt the passion and the romance and the whirlwind and the confusion, and I understood it. I haven't ever been in a relationship before, not a real relationship anyway, nor do I need or want to be right now, but I still got it. I understood it, I felt in, I experienced it along with the characters. My life was invested in their choices, I was spending my time in their days, and I even almost felt like we were friends.
    I do feel like saying, however, I totally called the ending, most of it anyway, and I only made one false prediction. But when I got to the end part where "He" is reading to "Her," I came across a paragraph of words that really connected with me, and so I'm going to share it with you.


    “You are Hannah, a lover of life, a strength to those who shared in your friendships. You are a dream, a creator of happiness, an artist who has touched a thousand souls. You’ve led a full life and wanted for nothing because your needs are spiritual and you have only to look inside you. You are kind and loyal, and you are able to see beauty where others do not. You are a teacher of wonderful lessons, a dreamer of better things...Hannah, there is no reason to feel lost, for:

Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,

No birth, identity, form-no object of the 

    world,

Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing;...

The body, sluggish, aged, cold-the embers

    left from earlier fires,

    ...shall duly flame again:” (The Notebook, 164*)

    How beautiful is that? I mean, honestly! That is one of the best, most loving descriptions of someone I have ever heard in my life, and I'm so proud that Nick Sparks chose my name to say it about. And all I have to say on that subject is this; Nicholas Sparks knows what he's talking about. 

*Oh yeah I even did it in MLA Citation baby!!

    Sparks, Nicholas. The Notebook.

        New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1996. Print. 164

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:

    You can think you have everything in your life figured out, and the next second, its a jigsaw puzzle.