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Hello. My name
is Jessica and I am almost 16 years old. I live in South Amboy, New
Jersey. Okay, now that I've given you all of the necessary information,
I'll start my story. My English class is required to have a novel
with us everyday, and the last novel I read was Catherine Ryan Hyde's
"Pay It Forward". I usually start books the day I get them,
but I took "Pay It Forward" out of the school's library
on Friday and left it in school over the weekend. The following Monday
I had ISS ( In School Suspension ) for arguing with a teacher in my
school. I had never be given ISS before. To tell you the truth, I
hardly ever get into trouble, but this time I'm glad I did. I had
an entire day and nothing to do, so I started reading the book. After
I started to read, I could not put the book down. I was told by the
school's librarian that the ending was upsetting but I put the thought
out of my head, hoping she was not telling the entire truth. Unfortunately,
the ending was very emotional. I mean, I felt connected to Trevor
and his friends and family. I could invision myself standing there
right beside him, helping him the entire time. I had gotten to the
very end of the book and then put it away before the sad part came.
I wanted to read it in a specific class of mine, so when the other
kids in the class asked me what was so special about the book, I could
tell them the whole story. I hoped that the kids would react in a
good way. Well, was I wrong. As I read the last few pages, I couldn't
help but start to cry. The other kids looked at me and started to
laugh. They thought I was way too emotional, and asked me how I could
be so upset over " just a book " and when I tried to tell
them about Trevor's quest for a better world, I could see it in their
eyes that I wasn't getting through. There was one boy in particular
in my class. Honestly, I had kind of a " crush " on this
boy. He was perfect, well he had the image of " perfection ".
The guys wanted to be him, and the girls wanted to date him, including
me. He looked over at me, and just started to laugh, and then he made
a few not- so-nice comments about me being too emotional. This just
made me even more upset, and it made me think that maybe there really
wasn't so much good in people anymore. Maybe Trevor was fighting a
loosing battle. Then, I looked back at the " perfect boy "
and seen him just sitting in his chair, in a daze. I asked him what
was the matter and he just looked back at me and smiled. I'll never
know what he was thinking about, but I'd like to think it was about
the story and my reaction to it. I hope for his own sake that he was,
because that was Trevor's mission. I know that he may be a fictional
character in a story, but he still was able to teach me a lot. I used
to be ignorant, and think that there was no more good people left,
but then I rethought my conclusions. It's Christmas time now, a time
for presents and joy. But at the same time, there are people out there
who use this time of the year to sulk and think of how another year
went by without the love of their life, or without their life being
complete. You cannot really blame these people for being so pessimistic.
I mean, look at the out come of Trevor's story, he was killed trying
to change the world. I admit it, I even thought of the world as an
even worse place after reading about Trevor's death, but then I thought
about it. I was doing exactly the opposite of what Trevor would have
wanted, I was adding to the ignorance of the world. AT that moment,
I decided that Trevor was doing what he believed in, and I believe
in his idea too. The world is not going to get better on it's own,
and I know that I'm only one teenager, and I cannot do it alone either,
but I'm gonna try. It's the least I can do to repay Hyde and Trevor
for changing my entire outlook on life. I really needed it. So that
was when I decided to write this letter, so that maybe someone could
be touched by my words, just as I was touched By Hyde's. Thank you
for your time. Sincerely, Jessica |
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