Where my boring homies at? Yeah you, the one who is utterly petrified at the idea of raising your hand right now. I see you, I am you. I loved and hated the premise of this book. While I absolutely applaud Sophie realizing and beginning to challenge herself to do different things, I absolutely hated that Ella thought she had any right to tell Sophie she had to. Sure they are best friends and she wants what is best for her friend, but I think she took it too far. In the initial concept of making her best friend feel like crap for being herself and honestly in some of the “differents” I think she took it too far.
I have extreme anxiety. In hindsight I have had anxiety at some level my entire life. I am the person who feels uncomfortable...pretty much constantly. If I don’t second guess what I say believe me I will be second guessing it for the next week after. My mind constantly wonders if people actually want me around...it’s exhausting. While I’ve had to push past that as I work in a very social industry, it was incredibly hard at first and is still exhausting for me at times.
I highly doubt that the author has anxiety. I applaud him trying to show that doing something different is a good thing that sometimes people do need to be pushed and that it can be extremely good for them. However as someone who suffers from anxiety I can honestly say that even with the medication I now take to keep me from multiple pointless panic attacks a day I would have had a few panic attacks on Sophie’s adventures.
My point is that while this novel was fun loving and wonderfully inspiring to see Sophie getting out there and trying new things and having this awesome summer, if you have a friend that you think is too responsible, too boring...absolutely give them a little push...but make sure they are 100% on board and if there is something they really don’t want to do...for instance holding a giant snake when they are terrified of them, take it easy…back off a bit and maybe accept the fact that they aren’t ready to handle something yet.
I believe we all need to challenge ourselves to constantly grow and evolve, but I do not believe it is a bad thing if you are an introvert or have anxiety and need some control over things. Sophie clearly needed help, I personally think she needs to go to therapy to deal with the trauma of her mother’s death because obviously she did not cope well and that is okay, but I don’t believe that one summer of pushing herself out of her comfort zone is going to solve the deep rooted problem for good. Yes she may put herself out there more which is fantastic, but what this novel screamed to me was of a girl who lived through something traumatic, a mother who died and a father who couldn’t cope afterwards and fell into depression. A girl who needs to actually get down to the root of the problem and begin to heal. Forcing herself into new experiences is one step but not the only step to fix the situation.
“90 Days of Different” by Eric Walters
https://www.google.com/books/edition/90_Days_of_Different/jYwtDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
A few other suggestions if you’re having trouble getting yourself out there...1) check in as to the reason why and 2) read the following books that I found really inspiring and were the main characters idea:
“Year of yes” by Shonda Rhimes
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Year_of_Yes/hA7GCQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
“Get a Life Chloe Brown” by Talia Hibbert
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Get_a_Life_Chloe_Brown/xyCGDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
….AAAAnd if you need a suggestion on a book to help you stop giving a shit about what everyone thinks about your introverted ways
“The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck”
Love that you gave a direction that would help more.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the point of reading as much as a librarian if I can't recommend a few haha
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