LOOKING FOR ALASKA

After reading a few pages, it suddenly occurred to me that this book is intended for a younger audience of which my age can no longer be considered part of that generation. I continued reading anyway and found several nuggets of wisdom.

Let me start with the notion of young love. Looking back, I have also experienced having feelings at that age and thinking that it must be the real ones. Only to realize later on that those were just hormones manifesting itself. However, we cannot discount the sincerity of young adults just starting to bloom.

This makes things more ironic for our main characters, especially the one called Alaska. Such a wonderful and promising young girl just so unlucky to have lost her mother in a traumatic circumstance and her father through indifference (for lack of a better word). She could have contributed more to the education of her juniors and would surely make a difference in the world had she lived long enough to do so.

Such a sad, poignant story indeed but it’s also full of lessons we can all learn from. For one, we need to remember to be kind to ourselves. To realize that the mistakes of the past are not all intentional and that at the core, we are all good people. Second, that friends can really make a difference in our lives and we tend to gravitate towards people who are more or less one of our kind. Third is that teachers do influence us - good or bad- and will leave indelible imprints in our hearts and minds.

The joys and sorrows of youth, the challenges of adolescents and the determination of making a mark in the world- all of these you will be reminded of when reading this book. I also like the fact that the characters of this book are portrayed as intelligent people and that they have a zest for life, albeit sometimes for the wrong reason. And just like everybody else, they make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes could sadly cost a life.

If for no other reason than just to take your mind off things, you should read Looking for Alaska and be transported to the time when all we needed to do was to make sure we passed the periodic exams. Along the way, you can be assured of quotes from great minds to add to our cache of wisdom.