Tuesday, April 5, 2011

if i stay

The worst thing you can feel about life, is that it is over. I still have flashbacks and nightmares, daymares if you may if they are during school, about the summer of '09. On that particular August rainy morning, my life was almost taken. I've been in 3 car accidents before, but that had definitely been the worst and most traumatic. My neck banged and cracked against the driver seat and the glass from the window next to me rained down on me. Luckily, none of the glass cut me, a miracle from God my mom says. Unfortunately for me, I did have to go to the hospital due to the damage on my neck and x-rays for my sprained ankle. I remember thinking for most of the rest of the year, that I should have been dead. I even felt a bit dead. Like along with that crushed car, a bit of me as well, was also crushed. 


I went on with life because life doesn't stop, not even for the traumatic things it decides to put you through. I think that may be one of the biggest life lessons you'll ever receive. Unfortunately for me though, I got the lesson at an earlier age than most, and at a more intense level. While reading if i stay by Gayle Forman, I felt I could relate to Mia on a deeper level. 


Gayle Forman has a gift when it comes to describing a scene. In a way it hurt me more to be able to revisit such a horrendous chapter of my life again by reading this book, but it also helped me to understand the story better. While reading the book the first time, the accident came so unexpected to me that when I read it, it hit me like a four-ton pickup truck going sixty miles an hour plowing straight into me with the force of an atom bomb. And that's exactly what happened to Mia and her family in their car on that surprisingly similar rainy day. The scene was so descriptive that I found myself living my car accident again. 


Unlike Mia, I did not go into a coma and have to make my decision of whether I should stay in the world or exit as my family before me had done. I'm pretty sure that if I had been in that same position, I would have driven myself crazy and out of this world on my own. 


I don't want to get too into the book, because I want you guys to read it on your own. I think people who are Twilight fans will definitely enjoy this book a lot. I recommend this book to all, and maybe not all will like it, but at least give it a chance first. Just take a chance and live life.


~Hillary.