"Life A'int Fair"

            Many people would agree that life isn’t fair.  Why would you want life to be fair?  Why wouldn’t you?  The second question is what I would have said a few days ago, until I read this part of the book.  If you think about it, like I did, then you would understand where I am coming from.  If life was fair, everything would come so easily and there wouldn’t be any fun.  I want to try to make you feel this way and I felt that the best way I could do that would be through a poem, about how you shouldn’t want life to be fair. 

Fairness

If life treated you fairly,

where would all of the fun go?

Life would be sucked dry

of interest.

If life was nice to you,

where would all the emotions be?

Anxious, Surprise, Anger, Sadness

and even happiness would all be gone.

If life liked you,

where would living life go?

Nowhere, it would be dead and gone,

sucked away into a hole of pointlessness.

If life was easy,

Where would all the adventures be?

Everything would be at your feet and

you would never experience the journey.

If life treated you fairly,

when would you wish on a star?

Never.

You should be thankful for the life you have,

because too easy will eventually become too hard,

and float away

into nothingness.

            Now that the poem is over, you might ask, what spurred my ideas?  On a page in The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine, and Claire keeps complaining about how difficult her life is.  Even though she got beat up, the hard times will eventually bring her to good times and I think those good times would involve Claire becoming friends with her new roommates.  Clair was talking too her roommate, Shane about how she got beat up and he said to her, “LIFE A’INT FAIR,” and he was right, sometimes it isn’t.  But that is life and that is what life is all about.  If everything came easy to you there’d be no fun or memories. 

            I hope I was able to convince you.  All of the stanzas come down to meaning the same thing: life would be boring and no fun if it wasn’t hard.  That wasn’t the lesson though, that was me telling you something you are going to realize one day.  The lesson of this poem is stated in the last stanza: be thankful for the life that you have because without it, you would never experience anything.  Let life be unfair, slap it in the face and keep going through the tough times because fun times come from the hard ones. 

You Can Run but You Can't Hide

               Have you ever run away from a problem?  Have you ever run and hide from what was coming for you?  Have you ever ignored something bothering you or tried to get away from someone who wasn’t treating you right?  Then yes, you have run away from a problem before.  And where has it got you?  Nowhere.  Running away from your problems will do you no good except build tension and stress.  Also, no matter how far you run, it’ll eventually catch up to you.  Problems are problems and they are going to stay problems if you hide from them.  You can run but you can’t hide. 

                Claire is running away from her problems.  In Morganville Vampires, by Rachel Caine, Claire has “gone missing” because she ran away from her college because girls there were bullying her.  They pushed her down a flight of stairs and they said they weren’t even done with her.  So, Claire ran away because fear got the better end of her.  That is scary and you can empathize with her as to why she ran away but no matter how much she wanted to, she still shouldn’t have done it.  She should have done something, but not that.  This is how Claire wound up in Morganville.  For now she thinks she’s safe, but I’m still at the beginning of the book so I don’t know if she is.

I interviewed an anonymous person about running away from their problems:

-Have you ever ignored a problem that you were having from someone?

                Yes, I was having a problem with many people before and ignored it. 

-Besides ignoring it, did you do anything else?

                I would try not to talk to the person and try to even hide from them when I saw them coming and go the other way.

-How did that work for you?

                We aren’t friends anymore…

-Have you ever tried to run away from a problem or put off a problem that wasn’t caused by a person?

                Yes, sometimes I just have too many things to do and too much on my plate with school, homework and extracurricular activities that I have no time to myself and things get really hard but I had no choice but to just not do it or get really mad or try to prevent from doing these things.  A couple of times I even faked being sick.

-Do you realize that by doing what you did that you were running away from your problems?  If so, do you think that’s good?

                I guess I was sorta running away from my problems but I don’t think it’s good because it is just a huge weight on your shoulders and anyway it really doesn’t turn out good in the end. 

-Have you ever run away or felt like it?

                I have never run away before but sometimes all my problems with people or school etc make me want to. 

                As you can see, people always feel like running away from their problems because they feel that by doing something about it, they’ll make it worse, but actually it’s the opposite.  Claire ran away and didn’t do anything because she was scared of making things worse.  But just like my interviewee, Claire must feel a huge weight on her shoulders and that things aren’t going to be finished or get better.  Just like in real life, I don’t think things are going to turn out well for Claire because the mean girls got the satisfaction of seeing her run away and just because you didn’t do anything, they are going to want more of Claire. 

                You should never make problems in life or people make you run away and be scared of things.  You have to stand up to your problems with power and tackle it head on and that is when it will go away.  You can tell someone to help you; you can talk to that person or simply not let it affect you.  Don’t completely ignore it, but just don’t let it affect you.  Handle it calmly and you will find a way around it.  Don’t let your problems deprive you of your strength and courage.  Use that strength and courage to stand up to your problems and not run away from them.  Remember, you can run but you can’t hide. 

Change and Happiness

      I have read The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks one time before and I have seen the movie but it still moves me every time.  This time though, I read it with a different eye and I noticed more this time change, in Ronnie from the beginning of the book to the end and it was mainly because of her boyfriend Will who she met while she was with her dad for the summer which at first she hated but by the end she realized it wasn’t that bad.  I found a poem on change that I thought would represent this book very well.  I did not write this, I found it on a website (link at bottom) and I broke it up into parts and will write about each part. 

Life is Changing and Through It all I Have Learned

1.   I've learned that no matter what happens,
or how bad it seems today, life does go on,
and it will be better tomorrow.

I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel. 

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person
 by the way he or she handles these three things:a rainy day, lost luggage,
and tangled Christmas tree lights.
2. I've learned that regardless of the differences
you have with the people in your life,
you'll miss them when they're gone.

I've learned that making a "living" 
is not the same thing as making a "life."

I've learned that life sometimes
gives you a second chance.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life
with a catcher's mitt on both hands. 
You need to be able to throw something back.

I've learned that if you pursue happiness,
it will elude you.
3. But if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can,
happiness will find you.

I've learned that whenever I decide something
with an open heart,
  I usually make the right decision.

I've learned that even when I have pains,
I don't have to be one.
4. I've learned that every day you should
reach out and touch someone.
People love that human touch --holding hands, a warm hug,  or just a friendly pat on the back.

I've learned that you should
pass this on to someone you care about.
Sometimes they just need a little something
to make them smile.

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

1.       This first section reminds me of Ronnie because she kept complaining about going to her Dad’s because basically she doesn’t like him and does not want to waste her summer at her dad’s.  But like it says, no matter how bad it was one day, it did get better for Ronnie because then she met Will.  Ronnie treated her dad bad and he tried to forget it and just soak in the moment when she was being nice to him because he really had no choice because he knew he was going to die.  But he still will have a sore spot because it most definitely hurt him a lot that his own daughter and only daughter did not like him.  The next part of the poem talks about things that you can tell about someone when they do one of those things.  These are just examples from their experience though but it this book you can learn about someone when they do certain things and for both Ronnie and her dad, it was playing the piano and they were both able to learn who they both were through that.

2.       When Ronnie’s dad died, it hurt really bad.  Even though most of the differences were behind them, she still felt bad that she treated him that way.  Even if they were still fighting, judging how Ronnie really was on the inside, she still would have felt terrible but I’m glad she was able to spend some real time with her dad before he died.  When is says making a living is different than a life in the poem, it means that just doing whatever and being there in life but not doing anything fun or interesting is different that saying you’re actually living life because that is not what living means.  Ronnie changed and when she was with Will she would take more chances and do things.  Also, life did give her a second chance because even when she treated her dad really bad, he still forgave her.  Ronnie was sort of selfish at first and full of hate and always took things and never gave anything in return which relates to the catcher’s mitt metaphor in the poem.  Ronnie pursued happiness and everything in her life suddenly became better, including her.

3.       Ronnie started to care about other people and helping them (her family, Blaze, Will) and she became a happier person and things were good to her (well for a little while).  When Ronnie let Will in and her dad with an open heart, she learned things, had fun and experienced things that she never experienced before.  Because she did this, she didn’t have to be alone anymore.  When she felt pain, she didn’t have to be one and alone because people were there for her because she was there for them at the end. 

4.       The last section was about other people.  It is trying to send out a message to the audience, just like the book was.  It is saying to care about the people around you and give them a little sign of love because they won’t be there forever and when they’re gone it’ll hurt like hell  but at least you’d know that you made every single moment with them worth it.  In the last moths with her father, Ronnie did this because she changed and she was happy. Also, caring for others means helping them and giving them a smile because that one smile can make a world’s difference and it’ll just let them know you’re there and that everything is going to be okay.  Ronnie did this in the last few days she had with her dad but don’t wait start now.  Ronnie is still far from perfect though, she will still continue to learn and to change and to learn to be happy.

I felt that this poem connected perfectly with the book because it pulled out all of the deep things about it and interpreted everything the book wanted to say and I wanted to say.  It showed change, learning and happiness which I was able to connect with Ronnie. 

http://www.lovethissite.com/changing/