Let's Be Honest!

I read the book “To Be Honest” from the author Maggie Ann Martin when I was fifteen. I started reading it in my Spanish class because one of the things we had to do was read a different book every month. When we finished a book, we exchange it with another classmate. That is how I found this book. The story is about Savannah a teen with a life full of ups and downs. To Be Honest exposes many serious issues, like anxiety, eating disorders, fat shaming and tense parental relationships. After her older sister Ashley heads off to her freshman year of college, there is nothing that Savannah dreads more than returning home without her. Savvy and her mom never got along after her mom went on a televised weight loss competition, but without Ashley to break up the fights, her mom’s obsession with weight and controlling Savvy’s health only grows more. As Savvy struggles with her worsening relationship with her mom, figuring out senior year and missing her sister, she already has enough to stress. Then she meets George. When the two grow closer, Savvy’s senior year takes a turn as she learns she needs to live in the moment and sometimes that means saying the truth. I would recommend this book because as I mentioned previously, this book deals with issues like fat shaming, making it a challenging read at some points. Savvy, the protagonist, is fat and deals with these issues head on. I loved the fat representation that was featured in this book and that truly made the book standout among others. I loved seeing a main character that was fat but did not let that become a major insecurity. Savvy embraced her weight and championed body positivism, something I wish more books attempted to do. One of my biggest takeaways from the book was that we needed more characters like Savvy.

Understanding Anxiety Disorders (When Panic, Fear, and Worries Overwhelm), by the National Institutes of Health

      

          In the article Understanding Anxiety Disorders (When Panic, Fear, and Worries Overwhelm), by the National Institutes of Health, the author explains the difference between being worried about a certain situation and having an anxiety disorder. Stress is generally a temporary experience, while anxiety disorder is a sustained mental health issue. There is not only a type of anxiety, but the most common are Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social anxiety, Specific Phobias, Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Most of these disorders get better with medications, psychotherapy (“talk therapy”), or a combination of both. The article also explains that most disorders are detected at the age of 14 years “Many kids with anxiety disorders will outgrow their conditions. But most anxiety problems we see in adults started during their childhood,” Pine adds. This means that most disorders are developed at an early age and if they do not receive treatment they continue until adulthood, but no matter what stage you are in, the best thing is to take the first step that is to go with your physician or your child’s pediatrician to get the best treatment. 

Book Out of my Past

         

          Reading is calming for me. It’s a way to experience other worlds, other lives that I normally wouldn't be able to experience, to lose myself in them and, at the same time, to learn from them. I feel like books have so much to teach me about life's experiences. My book from my past is “La Edad Prohibida” (Prohibited Age) by Torcuato Luca de Tena. This book has many editions but I read the one printed in 1982. I remember reading the book every night until I finished it. At the beginning, the book cover did not get my attention at all, but I started reading it because it was given to me in a gift exchange and I could not get away from the story until I finished it. The book begins when Anastasio arrives as director to a prison where it turns out that Enrique, a friend of his adolescence, is one of the prisoners. Through flashbacks he tells us his story, which begins when his family takes him out of Madrid, where they were resisting the last moments of the Civil War, and they send him to San Sebastian, home of some uncles. Anastasio is a nerdy and very shy boy, who does not know anyone in the city until one day he meets Enrique's gang and thanks to the fact that he gets them out of a good mess, he becomes one more: We know Leopoldo, a guy quite out, Adolfo, a sentimental poet, Andrés, Maribel, Celia, who becomes the best friend and platonic love of Anastasio and finally, Enrique, the leader of the group, with an exceptional charisma. Anastasio remembers his adventures with the gang, his day by day in school and we also witness his first disappointments. The years go by and each of the members of the gang are making their lives but still in contact. The story goes on until we discover why Enrique ends up in jail and why Anastasio ends up directing her as well as why one day he lost the love of his life. I would recommend this book because Torcuato Luca de Tena is an excellent writer. My favorite part of the book is that Anastasio and Enrique are like the Sun and the Moon; completely different in character, since Anastasio is timid, introverted and intact while Enrique is active, adventurous and reckless. These differences, however, do not stop them from sharing a deep friendship.

Girl, Interrupted – Most Valuable Part. Girl, Interrupted, Chapter 34.

          My Most Valuable Part from Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen is the last chapter when we finally discover the reason behind the name of the book. The story begins in the year of 1967, Susanna, the author and narrator with only eighteen years old is diagnosed by her psychiatrist with borderline personality disorder after attempting suicide by overdosing on pills. Immediately after, she voluntarily commits herself to McLean Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Belmont, Massachusetts. Over the next two years, Kaysen confronts her illness, through her thoughts; line by line.

          During her stay in McLean, Susanna speaks about her relationship with her high school English teacher. He takes her to New York to visit the Frick Museum, where she expects that he will try to kiss her. Suddenly, Susanna found herself contemplating a painting about a girl ignoring apparently her music teacher.  She felt that this girl of the painting was looking at her trying to warning her about something. Then, Kaysen imagines that the girl warns her not to pursue the relationship with her teacher “Wait,” “wait! Don’t go!” were the words that Susanna thought she heard coming out of the girl's mouth, but she didn’t listen to her.

          Sixteen years later, Susanna visits the museum again with a new boyfriend. She returns to the painting but interprets it quite differently. The painting is titled Girl, Interrupted at Her Music. When I read this part, I never imagined that I would feel so identified with the author. In my opinion, people see a certain situation depending on the stage of life they are living. Time and experiences make you see life with another perspective; that’s why Susanna interprets the same painting in two different ways. I think she learned that most of the time when we are young, we don’t have enough maturity to face the problems, and that may lead us to make mistakes.

          Another thing that caught my attention was that the name of the painting described her feelings about her experience at McLean Hospital. "Girl, Interrupted at Her Music" “Just as my life has been,” says Susanna. Kaysen tears up as she recalls how her own life was interrupted by illness and hospitalization. Although Susanna was very young and had a whole life ahead of her, nothing prevented her life from being interrupted by a mental illness.

          Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it very addictive. I think the most important lesson I learned from Girl, Interrupted was that crazy people is not different from normal people and that we all deserve second chances. Anyone who has ever had an obsession, felt impulses to be drastic over something, felt a bit out of place, or ever had in the back of their mind the suspicion that they might be just a little bit crazy, should read the book. Mental illness is a very real thing, and the course of treatment is crucial to a person's development I have always considered great that people write about their experiences, whether good or bad.