imperfect molecules.

for my birthday, i received a copy of john green's the fault in our stars from kamden. i basically devoted an entire sitting to finishing the book for i found myself more and more engrossed with its message. if you're ever looking for a quick-read, a book that is well written with a great message that doesn't require much thinking, then this book is for you. green's crafted the characters in a way where one can read with much compassion. hazel is bright for sixteen-years-of-age, and weaves a lot of psychology and philosophy into her explanations—sidenote, she outlined maslow's hierarchy of needs, and i felt really smart for already knowing what it was. her favorite (made-up) novel is an imperial affliction; she connects with the main character of the novel, anna, in that they both are cancer victims. though anna dies, hazel is able to accept the inevitability of anna's fate; however, she can't grow to accept the lack of a future of the other characters, particularly, anna's mother. when hazel goes out in search of answers for anna's mother's fate from the author of "aia", he doesn't necessarily provide her with the ones she needs to hear. i found a drastic parallel in that hazel has come to terms with her disease and her future death; she is unsettled over the fact that her mother has no discernible fate for her mother has assumed the role of "caretaker."

sorry, i didn't mean for this post to become a literary analysis. that's what you get from working in the high school english department. anyways, i do recommend this novel to anyone. this novel has further prompted me to reread hawking's a brief history of time. for those who like books that don't require much thinking, this book isn't for you.

straying away from that, i've had quite a lovely summer vacation so far and we're only a week in. some of my poetry will be published in an upcoming issue of the adroit journal. i was awarded an honorable mention in a youth verse contest, and i was further offered a position on the editing staff. i'll be working on the staff this summer while simultaneously working as a ta for the academy english department and continuing work on a short story. if i get anywhere with my short story idea, i will post it here. for now, i will keep it under wraps.

i've had some lovely times with friends recently. kelley invited me to go-kart racing with her, josh, and ethan. although it was quite a random group of people, i was extremely excited for the opportunity to try something out of my comfort zone. while i might not be the greatest reckless driver (coughcough da_stig cough), it was definitely an experience to remember. especially since kelley drove into one of the barriers and shortened the race for us...and possibly broke her finger. forever grateful that she didn't break something on a larger scale, like her neck. moving on.

these girls (+austin, +scott) and i went to kaimanas for a beach picnic yesterday. i've really enjoyed their friendship throughout this past school year, and i can pretty much say these are some of my closest friends. very sad that kam and em couldn't make it out here, but we kept their memories with us, and tanned extra-hard in their absence. i've never really encountered any problems with these friends as we've yet to allow conflict to arise; there's also no reason why conflict would arise when we're all so close and share many of the same values. i'll really miss katie, madi, austin, and scott once they go off in their separate ways. also:

i'll miss the sleepycat quite much, as i've known him since elementary school. nothing to see here, just the manifestation of our undying passion. i'm glad austin's such a good sport about this. and i'm glad scott's such a good sport about this:

mehehehehehehehe.