How to Pick?

Gramps entered to Mia's room up in the ICU, he was crying, and not the loud cry, but just tears falling out of his eyes. He told Mia how everyone's hopping she stays with them, but if she wanted to go she had to. That if she wanted to go with Teddy and her parents she could. this left Mia at peace, knowing that someone understood what she was going through. But then she saw Adam, apart of wanting to see him she had a worry, that he would disrupt the peace Gramps left her. Adam only could think that it was his fault , he thought the vassal rupture was his effect because before he went to see her she was fine. the only words he says was "Please, please, please, please." Please don't die, please don't leave me, please. 

Mia has many questions about how things are going to work out, there is one thought that made me think. She says "I wonder if every dying person gets to decide whether they stay or go. It seems unlikely. After all,this hospital if full of people having poisonous chemicals pumped into their veins or submitted to horrible operations, all so they can stay, but some of them will die anyway,"(Forman, 180).  If she is right, if we get to choose how come many young people die? Is it because they chose to? Or is it just science? And if anyone has the chance to pick either living or dying, they should always pick living because there are many people that don't have that chance even though they want to, and if you just want to die, you should live for them.

"Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you." 192
Since we are little kids parents tell us that every choice we take and every decision we make have a consequence, either bad or good depending on what you did. But they never tell you about the choices life makes, like for example who comes and goes from our life's. Meeting someone can be destiny, making friends with them is a choice, but we didn't decide to meet them, it just happen. Like meeting Adam wasn't Mia's choice, he came to her, getting to know Adam was Mia's choice, and falling for him and him falling for her was neither of their choices, just faith.

A Mozart's Requiem

     Mia keeps struggling with either "staying" in this state or moving on and has a life with Adam. One of the problems is that she doesn't know how to wake up or simply die. She is already giving up, and realizes why at this point living is harder than dying.  One of her incentives is already gone, Teddy died, she knows it, her little brother is dead. Mia and Teddy have a ten-year age difference, making Teddy 7 when he died. Mia said that he was the one that had to live or at least have the chance to do so. But as well as she means, probably Teddy needs to be with his parents much more, cause ha cannot take care of himself, Mia can.

"Amazing things happen when you stop hiding behind that hulking beast."138
This part of the dialogue Mia has with one of her camp friends was touchy, not only because I as well play the cello but because it is true that when someone takes their mask off sometimes there has been someone beautiful hiding behind. This is one of the most important lessons of life because life is all about discovering yourself, and they say you never finish learning who you are, but many people hide what they are. I don't know why is that because, Why hide something beautiful? In my believe this is part of what must be tough to the early generations, respect, not only to the elderly or to the planet (which is also very important), but to themselves. Teach them that if they don't respect themselves there is nobody that will respect them back!


"I'd want a Mozart's Requiem" 172
To better explain why this quote had a big impact on me I have to tell bit a story, I play the cello and my teacher once told us about this composition, she sang it at school (in Latin as well) but with so many practices she became depressed and some kind of enchanted, she drew this dark things, etc. The point is that I was taunted with this story, and when I read this book I started to read about this composition. The story is basically how he started writing this Requiem, a Requiem is a mass for the death. Mozart started writing it but he never actually finished, yet he died before he could. One of his appendices finished it for him. Mia wanted this composition to be played at her funeral, not because of the mystery it all brought but because apart of its story it is a beautiful song. While she was thinking about how her ;parents told her she wanted to die, she also thought of how she wouldn't be able to complete their wishes, her parents wanted to die together, (which they did) but they also wanted Mia to play in their funeral. Many of the things she wanted to do she wouldn't be able to do if she didn't made it but that is not one of her bigger worries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIgX450Rd68 
This is the link to the composition by Mozart, Requiem.

Days in the ICU

Days in the ICU (intensive care unit)

This picture makes emphasis on  the book
 because Mia wants to go home.

Mia still hasn't heard of Teddy, and she still waits for Adam to come and see her. At first she believed that with all this mess her grand parents hadn't called anyone that is not immediate family. But then she sees her friend, Kim, and hope at the same time, she knows that Adam will come soon and that she has to make it. Through time she has figured out that although she cannot pass through doors and windows like she imagined, she can still move from side to side touching things like elevator buttons and making them work - without anyone noticing she was pushing buttons. After roaming around the ICU floor she stayed in her room to see who came, she spied a car on the front parking lot, it was a familiar car. It was one of Adam friend´s car! She was so happy, she wanted to hold him and kiss him so hard! - but, she couldn't, she couldn't even talk to him. Because all roads take you to Rome, the same dilemma arise again and again "If I stay...."

"--people called us the Groovy and the Geek." 91

 

            This part of the book made me connect to the movie by Walt Disney "The Beauty and the Beast." Because in his book Mia and Adam are 2 very different people, one loves classical music, the other is a rock lover, just as Belle and the Beast (whom is actually called Adam just as Mia´s boyfriend). Belle is a “normal girl” even though everyone else calls her weird because she likes to read, and Prince Adam is a rich prince that lives in an enchanted castle with all his servants turned to objects that have eyes, feelings, and know how to sing and cook (!) and somehow they found a way to each other. Anyhow, Mia and Adam also have many differences, there is one thing that connects them both, music, and for all those years it is what’s going to keep them together. As bad as Mia gets Adam wants to be with her, so bad that in a further part of the book he starts to dress up as a janitor, so he could get in to see Mia. This also shows the deep love and strong relationship they’ve built.


"But whatever and whoever he was early this morning, he isn't that person any longer". 119
For me Gayle used this phrase not only to say how the truck driver, although he had no apparent superficial wounds, he would NEVER be who he was in the morning. But also to say how all of humans have those days where you don't know who you are anymore. Like in Alice in Wonderland, Alice says, "I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then." (Alice in Wonderland). Everyone changes in their life, either they grow as a better person or not, but we all learn from obstacles life has putted in front of us. Because apparently that is life's job, making our life like a stair case, you cant get to the end of it in one step, you have to go through them all, even if it is jumping.

Difficult Choices

                                     Difficult Choices

If I Stay, by Gayle Forman, is the story of a girl that is just a little bit different than the rest of her family. She plays the cello and loves to listen to classical music, on the other hand her family loves rock and playing loud songs. Mia, our main character, is in love with Adam, a popular guy and actually cool, at first she thinks that when he comes to de auditory to hear her play, he is only playing with her, but after a Yoyo Ma concert and a really awkward moment ( then a kiss) Adam becomes her boyfriend. Although all Mia's family (and boyfriend) have many differences, at the end they love each other very much and make un forgettable  memories. On a normal day, when school was cancelled because of the snow, all the family decides to go to do some fun activities, (remember that with the snow the road is slippery). After making the same discussion for what music to play, and classical wins, Mia falls asleep, when she wakes up, an accident has happened, her mother and father die, and her brother is lost.


"- it looked almost human to me. It looked like if you played it, it would tell you secrets."
I started playing cello when I was in fifth grade, it was one of the things many people said it was for my best friend, so I could spend more time with her. Partially it was, I loved spending a lot of time with her, it was like she understood me, and that with only one look we knew what each other thought. After a year or two, we were no longer best friends, but only friends, that look had disappeared. At first I thought that being in so many things together would affect me, but then I understood that all those decisions were for me too, I started to play the cello because of the sound it made, it made many harmonies and it only had four chords. When I played it, it was like I just had added another extremity, and that I knew how to make it function, just as my hands, my legs, my head. Also didn't had to sing to make music, I was making music with my hands in charge, and I like it when I have things under control.


"I had never known that I could make someone feel this way"
Personally, never in my life I have worried too much about making everyone like me, because adapting to a society where anything you do or are is un-accepted would be wrong. Nevertheless, I have liked many boys, but actually never did anything about it. One of my thoughts  has always been if I could make someone feel like I have felt, in the clouds where nothing matters. But 'till today the necessity of being with someone and having to adapt to what a BOY thinks has not attracted mi mind, and I have many other things to worry about, like school and sports and music. I will have more time to think about boys, anyway in middle school boyfriends never last more than a movie.


Perhaps this book is about how hard is making choices in a society where anything outside the normal is bad and where even the country of the brave (USA) is in fear of the un-known and the different, where they urge you to think out-side the box and to make different opinions, but when you do it is just W-R-O-N-G!

Feeling Good Today

The last few chapters of the book help all the other ideas wrap together making the last chapter. This chapter talks about how the secret grows from the little things like money, to the big things as yourself and life in it own. The secret is delivered to the reader, and it is his/her choice to do whatever they want with it, obviously with the consequences that come within. 

"Let go of difficulties from your past, cultural codes, and social beliefs. You are the only one who can create what you deserve."

Everyone has. Their own problems, but life is about moving on, and if you don't let the past go, you will never go anywhere. Me? I had a horrible past, my parents didn't like each other, at all. And they got divorced, on my birthday! My father is a little bit aggressive, and he used to hit me for whatever reason, but I made him understand that in that way the only thing he is going to get is hatred from me. He stopped, and I learned to let it go. If you think of it, I am only a teenager, and if Jennifer Aniston got over Brad Pitt, the you can let go of whatever problem you have! 

The meme is in Spanish, but it says "If Jennifer Aniston got over Brad Pitt you can get over any moron.

"Do what you love. If you don't know what brings you joy, ask, 'What is my joy.' As you commit to your joy, you will attract an avalanche of joyful things because you are radiating joy."

As a little girl, every time I said I wanted to be a teacher, or a chef my father said "You have to get a job that is not mediocre." In the end I always ended up more confused than before because, where is the mediocrity on teaching little kids to be intelligent and well- formed?! Put in the end my father always made me chance my head in other directions. Now I am sure I want to practice medicine, and everyone is telling me how hard it is going to be! But now I am not a little girl, so I accept the challenge.

The secret is the answer to Althea's has been, all that is, and all that will ever be." - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Laughter

Laughter




Our body and health are products of our thoughts. Like the placebo effect, placebo is something that has no impact on the human body, doctors tell patients that the placebo has the same efficiency. This is why many people believe that our minds make greater effect than some medication. All humans have an immune system that helps us heal our selves, every wound regenerates skin, infections are taken care. With bigger infections the only thing you have to do is to believe it would heal.

"Laughter really is the best medicine."

We have all heard our grandparents tell us that we have to laugh, even about our selves, or the whole thing, that laughter is the best medicine. But we never listened, we just smiled and walked away. In this book the author explains how if we laugh, all the negativity starts to come out of the body and all the positive stays in. 

"When people are completely focused on what's wrong with their symptoms, they will perpetuate it. The healing will not occur until they shift their attention from being sick to being well."

All my life I have always been sick, or at least not completely healthy all the time. For example, everyday I would be sneeze or coughing, for exception of a few hours. And I kept repenting this, then I realized what I was doing, because before I read this book my aunt did and she told me.  For a whole month I wasn't even in the line of sick, every time it was about to start my small flu, I repeated to myself "I am health, I am healthy." And it worked! 

In conclusion, when you say something about how bad your health is, like "I always get sick." That is all  you're going to get. Instead you should repeat all the time how healthy you are, and that is what you are going to be.

Oh, Those Poor Unfortunate Souls

Oh, Those Poor Unfortunate Souls

If you want to attract a healthy relationship where you partner loves you and tells you how beautiful you are, you should first show that love to yourself, because who would want to be with someone who doesn't even likes her/his self? The first step to find a good partner is to fill yourself with love! Oftentimes during a relationship people more on the flaws and weaknesses of their spouse, and by the law of attraction the more you think of their flaws, more flaws you are going to have. This said, in a relationship that has two people thinking on the strengths of the other, the relationship has more strengths than a relationship where both individuals think only of the flaws of the other. 

"Your job is you. Unless you fill yourself up first, you have nothing to give anybody"

This quote made me think about what many people say, " I am tired of people hurting me."  Because through the law of attraction, by saying this you are asking for more people that will hurt you. I have also used this sentence, without knowledge of the law. This made me think of all the times I've said it, and the effects of using it, many people have hurt me, and it is because I used that sentence as if it were harmless. 

"Treat yourself with love and respect , and you will attract people who show you love and respect." 

Many people I know, like my brother are always saying awful things about their selves. The other day after reading this chapter, I heard my brother say "Soy un idiota!" (I am an idiot) and by myself I started thinking that because he doesn't love himself there are probably many people that make him feel that way. I have always know that there were some kids in my brothers grade that make everyone feel bad, but for some reason this kids bother my brother the most, and then it hit me, my brother is becoming a negative person magnet! 

When you don't like many things about yourself, you are essentially blocking all the good things that can come to you, therefore more people that will make you feel bad about yourself will get to your life. Why do you think Taylor Swift has never had a relationship that lasts more than a song? Well, it is probably because she only sings about the bad things that happen to her, the bad relationships, the man that ruined her life! If she sang songs about how much she loves herself and the qualities that make her feel special, people who make her feel that way would have to get in her life. If you focus more in the good things of yourself, the law of attraction will show you the most great things of yourself.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyFVG4VfPmg - Poor Unfortunate Souls, The Little Mermaid