True Talk Tuesday

Hey everybody. I know, long time/no talk. Forgive me? You will?

Awesome.  Thank you. 

So I came up with a random idea today. Actually, I came up with a random idea, oh, about, 20 minutes ago, if we are getting specific.

Couple facts about me:
I love quotes.
I also love books.
And books--since they're, you know, written with words and are often amazing in content and subject matter--often hold little gems and nuggets of golden wisdom in the form of quotes.

So (here's the random idea I came up with): On Tuesdays here on the site, I'm going to feature a favorite quote or excerpt from a book.  This feature will be called "True Talk Tuesday."  I will pick quotes and excerpts that have meant a lot to me or challenged me or made me question things or think or love or feel, and then I will highlight that excerpt here each week.

​For this inaugural True Talk Tuesday, I am going to post a quote from one my favorite authors whom I dearly respect and admire: Sarah Dessen.

This quote is from my favorite book by Sarah, titled THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER. I still remember feeling so in awe and understood after finishing that book as a junior in high school: the main character Macy's struggles, the feelings of a new summer and fresh starts, trying to ditch feelings of perfectionism while balancing life's  chaos...it's a book I read every summer to this day, the book's pages underlined and loved and dog-eared year after year.  When I met Sarah Dessen at a book signing last May, I had no problem picking out which one of her books that I would ask her to sign. She's written wonderful books, but my favorite will always be THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER. 

When I was a freshman in college reluctantly taking a performance arts class (unfortunately required...I was a nervous wreck throughout the whole thing), I "performed" this scene from THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER that included the above excerpt for the entire class. The assignment involved finding your own material that inspired you, then you needed to memorize that material and bring it to life by reading out loud/acting it out. I still remember sitting in a chair in front of the whole class, the students' blank eyes staring at me, while I recited the above words with as much gumption and emotion as I could evoke without letting the nerves come through. It wasn't too bad. I believed the words I was speaking. I connected with Dessen's writing voice and what the characters were going through. 

I love books that make me feel like somebody gets me, somebody feels the way I do. Even if that personl is a fictional character, it is relieving and awakening to recognize your own emotions on the page. It's nice to feel understood.

We all get a future. A future made up of seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, that eventually turns into a life. I love the eloquent way that Sarah Dessen poses the question through book characters that often plagues us all: Are you spending your precious time--your precious LIFE--doing what you love? Doing what you feel you NEED to do? Are we making sure we aren't wasting our lives away worrying about people, places, things, jobs, that don't matter or aren't right?

xoxo,

Linds

​*I'd love to hear from quotes that YOU love, too. Feel free to post in the comment section below and I'll check them out to see if we can potentially feature one of your faves on here. PLUS I'm always looking for solid book recommendations :) *

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