Search

Rainy Day's Books, Video Games and Other Writings

Open Search
Category

Other

Book Review: The Giver (The Giver #1)

Rating: 4 stars

The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.

This wasn’t my first time reading The Giver as I read this book back when I was in middle school. However, since its been such a long time since I’ve read it, I feel like I can give a review of my thoughts on it due to how much time has passed since I last read it.

What I find interesting about this book is the world you are introduced to through Jonas. He’s only twelve, but the world he lives in is pretty extraordinary in that its completely different from what we are used to. But as the reader, you don’t really realize how different it is until you get into the story, and he describes the community he lives in. For example, if you want to have a spouse and children, you have to apply for it instead of getting to choose who you want to marry and have children yourself. You are also only allowed to have two children, one boy and a girl, and there is a ceremony that happens when you’ve been approved to receive your child. I find this structure within this community interesting because its very different from what you would expect. It seems very orderly in a lot of ways because there’s a counsel that makes these decisions that is supposed to be for the good of the community.

Basically the world Jonas lives in is full of sameness where there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary. That is until Jonas turns twelve and attends his Ceremony of Twelve to find out what his Life Assignment will be. As the reader, that is when we really learn about the world Jonas inhabits and discover the darkness that hides within their community. Jonas gets assigned to be the Receiver of Memories, a job that’s deemed the most important job in the community, but you don’t discover why until Jonas meets his mentor known as The Giver. That’s when everything changes in Jonas’s life as he realizes everything isn’t what it seems and the world he’s grown up in isn’t as great of a place as it appears.

What I love about The Giver is that as the reader, you really feel for Jonas as you see his world turn upside down. What he thought was true about his life and the way he and everyone lives he finds out isn’t all that great. He learns that there are truths being kept from everyone in the community under the guise of being what’s best for everyone and that he’s being given the responsibility of shouldering everything for the sake of everyone in the community. And as he’s a twelve-year-old still learning about life, I found myself feeling very sympathetic to him and what he was going through as those who could’ve helped him were the ones responsible for putting him in this predicament.

The Giver takes place in a world that seems perfect, but that is far from the real truth as Jonas learns as he receives more and more memories. And as a reader, that’s what drew me into this world and the characters who inhabited it. While all of the characters save Jonas had any character development, I knew that was the point since nobody in this world really knew the truth about anything that was going on save those directly involved. Jonas was also who the story was about too, so it makes sense that none of the other characters in the story evolved in any way.

If I had to choose anything to criticize about this book it would be the ending. Not with regards to the choice Jonas makes, but that as the reader I felt like there was too much left up for interpretation. I also didn’t like that we didn’t see how his decision impacted the community and if there was any real change that happened as a result. I’d like to believe his choice made a huge impact, but without knowing, I have a difficult time believing it. Especially since the world he lived in had been the way it was for so long. I had a hard time believing the choice he and The Giver made really made an impact the way it was meant to and wouldn’t have been surprised if things continued the way they always had. Without seeing any of the story from The Giver’s perspective, its hard to know for sure and I didn’t like that. Because while I wanted to believe things in their world changed for the better, it was hard to know for sure without seeing how Jonas’s actions affected the community. And the only way we would know for sure is if some of the story had been told from The Giver’s perspective.

Overall however, I enjoyed reading The Giver again. There were some moments from the book I remembered from my first read, but I honestly feel like there was a lot I really didn’t remember, which made me feel like I was able to read this with a fresh mind. I know I enjoyed reading this book in middle school and I’m pleased to see I enjoyed it just as much this time but even more so as I feel like I truly understood what was going on and how dismal the world Jonas lived in truly was. I highly recommend this read to anyone who enjoys any story told in a dystopian world that gives off the appearance of being a normal society and anyone who enjoys stories told from the perspective of a younger person who’s still learning about the world around them. Really excited to eventually read the rest of the books in The Giver series even though none of them continue where this one leaves off.

0

Book Review: Monster: A Tale of Murder, Madness and Plastic Surgery

Rating: 3 stars

MONSTER. The word evokes images of fairy tales and horror. But once, in 1850 Philadelphia, it was actually the term commonly used in physician’s case notes for the victims of fire.

Conflagrations were common in this period—clothing, especially women’s lace, was highly flammable. Once the flesh was destroyed, there was no cure. These unfortunate souls lived out their lives as MONSTERS, secluded away by family. Once burned flesh gives way to contractures, disfigurements to rival even Bram Stoker’s imagination were born. And the hearts of the people inside the shell perished.

Lorelei is one such MONSTER. Born to a wealthy family, disfigured by fire, she fake’s her own death, leaving the world she knows behind—because in her mind…freedom, even if it is a workhouse, is preferable than the life of a shut-in, a burden on her family’s name.

!850’s Philadelphia is an epi-center of medicine. Rival medical schools search in desperation for bodies—cadavers to teach the art and science of anatomy to their medical students. Corpses become so rare, a new profession evolves. Resurrection Men, or body snatchers, dig up the graves of the newly decreased for high pay.

Rory Henry is one of the Resurrection Men. A Scots-Irish Immigrant, he has fought his way off the streets, and into medical school by whatever means necessary. He is not above digging up corpses—he cuts them by day and searches them out by night. These two lives intersect in an explosion of personality-Rory is designated as Lorelei’s surgeon. Entrusted with performing the new operation called The Mutter Flap. Once he sees her face, will the unrequited love die, or ignite?

People are disappearing. Someone has discovered that murder is far more lucrative than grave robbing. And many of the bodies are from Lorelei’s workhouse. Will she be next?

Monster is an interesting story that I found myself eager to find out what happens next. Told back and forth from the perspectives of Rory and Lorelei, this book is a story about two people with somewhat similar backgrounds/circumstances who come together unexpectedly when Lorelei asks for Rory’s help as her sister Molly is very sick. What starts as a doctor patient relationship quickly turns into much more as Rory and Lorelei discover their feelings for each other while there’s a killer on the loose in Philadelphia who’s killing people and Rory starts receiving notes that people close to him are next.

What I enjoyed when reading this book was reading the story from both Rory and Lorelei’s perspectives. I especially enjoyed reading Rory’s chapters because of getting to see him when he’s at work as a doctor. I also loved his chapters because of getting to meet his friends (in particular, I enjoyed his friendships with Charlie and Becca) along with hearing about his experiences as one of the Resurrection Men. His chapters really caught my attention because I found his story interesting and wanted to learn more about him. It was also interesting because I felt like I was hearing a lot of technical terms that doctors use and also felt like I could hear his Scots-Irish accent when he engaged in conversation throughout the book. What I enjoyed about Lorelei’s chapters is learning more about her background and how she came to be in Philadelphia. What you learn about Lorelei while reading her chapters is that she is a victim of burning so severe that her face is disfigured and that she has a terrible past that she would rather forget. Overall when reading this book, the story is told from the perspectives of two interesting characters with a difficult past who are doing the best they can to overcome the odds stacked against them.

What I also enjoyed about Monster was the romance that developed between Rory and Lorelei. Though at times I felt like their feelings for each other came too quickly, I felt like overall they were a good couple that balanced each other out. Rory out of the both of them would make rash decisions based on his feelings while Lorelei was the more reserved/guarded one who thought her decisions through. So whenever anything happened in the story, I felt like Lorelei was the one who was able to help Rory get through them. Not to say Rory never did the same for Lorelei, but I feel like Lorelei was able to hold her own overall better out of the both of them. I also liked that they loved each other despite each of their circumstances and what happened throughout the book. Especially that Rory cared about Lorelei despite her disfigurement as there were people in the story who cared too much and were doing what they could to tear their relationship apart.  

There are some aspects of their relationship, however, that I did have some criticism for. I felt like their relationship developed into romance way too quickly for starters. As much as I love the dynamic of their relationship, I definitely felt like their relationship was an instant attraction even though I feel like neither of them needed that in the story. From the moment they met, I felt like they were instantly interested in each other which was why that scene in the carriage happened. And I wasn’t too fond of it just because I didn’t feel like it fit either of their characters with Rory talking about his swearing off of lasses and Lorelei’s dark past that you find out about as the story goes on. So seeing them both instantly interested in each other despite what we learn I find hard to believe as I didn’t feel like it fit each of their characters. I also found it hard to believe how quickly their feelings for each other developed into love and how quickly they were willing to tell each other about their pasts. I get that this story is told from a different time period so romance might’ve been different then, but with how guarded both these characters were around people they didn’t trust, I had a difficult time believing they would open up to each other so quickly.

Another criticism of Monster I have that resulted in me giving this book a three-star rating was the plot of the story. I found the plot overall interesting, but I felt at times like there was too much happening in the story at once. In the beginning, it didn’t seem like too much was going on and the story’s pacing was great. But as Lorelei and Rory’s relationship continued to grow, I felt like more and more things started to happen in their lives. Some examples that come to mind for me that I feel like I can share without spoiling the story too much include when Rory is going digging up bodies and a creature he heard about from his childhood in stories starts making an appearance at his group’s digging sites and he finds out the truth about this creature, the murders that happen of women including someone Rory and his friends know, and Lorelei being given the opportunity to get surgery to change her disfigurement. While I definitely feel like all of these things happening in the story is interesting plot-wise, I feel like when they happen disturbed the overall pacing in the book for me that it started off with. I also feel like some of the moments I mentioned happened way too quickly in the book, making the build-up to finding out how things went disappointing. While I enjoyed these moments in the plot because I found them interesting, I also felt like they were rushed through and not given as much detail as they deserved.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Monster. It was an interesting read for me with unique characters and romance thrown in that while developed too quickly for my liking, I found myself still rooting for it. And while the overall plot in this book didn’t match the pacing of the story and could’ve used more writing to flesh things out, I was still interested in seeing where things went in the story. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a fast-paced read that’s filled with romance, murder, and a story set in a time period different from our own.

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.            

0

Book Review: Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume II

Rating: 5 stars

Since his first appearance in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has been one of the most beloved fictional characters ever created.

Now, in two paperback volumes, Bantam presents all fifty-six short stories and four novels featuring Conan Doyle’s classic hero—a truly complete collection of Sherlock Holmes’s adventures in crime!

Volume II begins with The Hound of the Baskervilles, a haunting novel of murder on eerie Grimpen Moor, which has rightly earned its reputation as the finest murder mystery ever written.

The Valley of Fear matches Holmes against his archenemy, the master of imaginative crime, Professor Moriarty.

In addition, the loyal Dr. Watson has faithfully recorded Holmes’s feats of extraordinary detection in such famous cases as the thrilling The Adventure of the Red Circle and the twelve baffling adventures from The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes.

Conan Doyle’s incomparable tales bring to life a Victorian England of horse-drawn cabs, fogs, and the famous lodgings at 221B Baker Street, where for more than forty years Sherlock Holmes earned his undisputed reputation as the greatest fictional detective of all time.

Just like the first volume, which you can check out my review of here, I enjoyed reading this volume of the rest of Sherlock Holmes novels and stories. Like with the first volume, I still enjoy seeing Holmes and Watson interact with each other and how they go about solving cases together. Their relationship with each other was still enjoyable to me to read and I continued to love how Watson described their cases. It also felt like their relationship and trust with each other had grown since the first volume, which I liked to see.

Like with the first volume, there were a lot of cases in this one that weren’t just murder. And I feel like I enjoyed a lot of those cases more in this volume than the last one. It just felt like they were more interesting to me story wise.

There were also a lot of cases in this volume that I really enjoyed overall which made this book an enjoyable read to me. Some of my favorites were The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear, His Last Bow, The Adventure of the Dying Detective, The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire,  and The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane, just to name a few. What all of these stories have in common in comparison to the others in this volume for me is that the stories were interesting to me in ways I didn’t expect. They had twists in their plot I wasn’t expecting that made me continue to read them to find out what happened next.

My biggest criticism with this volume was how Holmes was still keeping Watson in the dark at times when they’d solve cases together. While I understood why, I definitely felt like there were times he could’ve at least let Watson know what was going on so he could better help him. I also was sad when I finished reading this volume because of how much I was enjoying these stories. While I’m happy to have now read all of Sherlock Holmes because of how much I enjoyed my experience, I’m sad to have finished these stories as I know the next time I read them it won’t be the same since it won’t be my first time reading them.

If you’ve read this post, thank you so much for stopping by! Please leave a comment below if you feel like you can relate to feeling sad after reading a book for the first time that you really enjoyed like I did with these two volumes.

0

Book Review: Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard

Rating: 4 stars

From Borrower to wizard, Tom Felton’s adolescence was anything but ordinary. His early rise to fame saw him catapulted into the limelight aged just twelve when he landed the iconic role of Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.

Speaking with candour and his own trademark humour, Tom shares his experience of growing up on screen and as part of the wizarding world for the very first time. He tells all about his big break, what filming was really like and the lasting friendships he made during ten years as part of the franchise, as well as the highs and lows of fame and the reality of navigating adult life after filming finished.

Prepare to meet a real-life wizard.

I’m not one who typically reads autobiographies, but as someone who grew up loving the Harry Potter series, I was excited to read this one about the actor who plays the iconic character of Draco Malfoy. I found this autobiography to be an easy read for me as I learned more about Tom Felton and what it was like for him to grow up as a child actor.

What I loved about reading Beyond the Wand is the way in which Felton wrote. In his book, he felt so relatable, and I enjoyed that. I know those of us not in the entertainment industry tend to idolize celebrities, but they are just everyday people like us. And I felt that in this book when Tom talked about his family and what it was like growing up with three older brothers. As someone who doesn’t follow celebrities closely enough (even celebrities that are part of a series that I really love), I felt like I learned a lot about Tom that I didn’t know and felt like I got a really good understanding as to why he was the perfect person to play as Draco Malfoy.

What I also enjoyed from reading this autobiography was getting to get inside the mind of an actor and getting to visualize where the Harry Potter films were created. I felt like we got a huge glimpse into the Harry Potter universe through Felton and I enjoyed it. I also found this book to be a highly entertaining read whenever he would mention another actor from the series being up to no good or whenever he talked about things he did on set that got him into trouble. I also loved hearing about the other actors in the series from Tom’s perspective as we don’t really know what the relationship between actors on a set is like and you could tell that Tom overall enjoyed his experience filming the Harry Potter movies.

If I had to choose anything to criticize about Beyond the Wand it would have to be the overall length and how it ended. I felt that while this autobiography was a very enjoyable read, it felt almost too short. Like there was more content that could’ve been included that we didn’t get. I feel like this goes hand in hand with my view about this book’s ending, which I’ll get into now.

While I enjoyed the last two chapters as they portrayed a serious subject matter that I don’t feel gets talked about often enough, I feel like they didn’t fit in with the rest of the book. However, once I read them, I also wanted more chapters like them as I feel like a lot of Felton’s autobiography focuses on his time filming the Harry Potter series. Of course, I understand that the Harry Potter films played a huge role in his life so it would make sense that there would be a lot about them but after reading the last two chapters, I realized then that I wanted even more. I wanted to learn more about the subject Tom barely covered as I feel like it’s an important element to his book that we needed more of. And the way in which it was talked about wasn’t enough for me.

But overall, I enjoyed reading Beyond the Wand as I felt like I could hear his voice as I was reading it, and loved the nostalgia it provided me as someone who grew up with the Harry Potter series. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy autobiographies, especially by celebrities. I also recommend this book to those wanting to see the Harry Potter series through the eyes of someone portraying one of the characters in the films and if you’re curious to learn more about the actor who played as Draco Malfoy.   

1

Stepping Into 2023 With a Fresh Start

Hello everyone! If you’re reading this, thank you for continuing to follow my blog despite the lack of posts in 2022. 2022 has been such a busy year and I wasn’t writing and reading quite as much as I usually do so I unintentionally stepped away from blogging. But I’m hoping with this, I can get back into blogging again. Its not that I meant to not post anything, just sort of happened and I couldn’t stop it.

There’s also just been a whole lot with work and life in general from this past year that I’ve been dealing with too. So I’m hoping as we step into 2023 I can start over with a fresh start so to speak. I’m not planning on making any promises that the amount I post within 2023 will be more than now. What I do know though is that I will continue to blog on here. I’ve been in a writing slump the past couple months and am slowly getting out of it now. I went through a brief time where writing was feeling like a chore to me, so I wanted to get out of that mindset before posting on here again as I didn’t want to bring that mindset onto my blog or any of my posts. So I’m hoping as we all step into the new year, my love of writing continues to shine through, and I don’t have as many moments where I feel like I’m not enjoying what I’m doing when it comes to my writing.

Along with starting 2023 on a clean slate, I also want to continue in 2023 doing things I enjoy doing. Whether that’s continuing to make blog posts here on WordPress, reading, playing video games, etc., I want to always make time out of each day to do at least one thing I enjoy. Life is too short not to make time out of your day to do things you love, and I find for myself at least that it helps me feel better whenever I’m not feeling as good.

 I also want to take into the new year better health. Whether it’s mental, physical, or emotional health, 2022 has been a rough year for health for me and members of my family. So I’m hoping as we step into 2023, that things will get better health wise for me and my family as this year its been rough and I feel like we need a break. I know there’s no guarantee of this of course, but one can always dream!

Hope you all are doing well though! Is there anything you are hoping to get from the new year? Please leave a comment below if there’s anything you are hoping you’ll get from 2023 and thank you for reading my blog!  

3

Book Review: A Lily in the Light

Rating: 4 stars

For eleven-year-old Esme, ballet is everything—until her four-year-old sister, Lily, vanishes without a trace and nothing is certain anymore. People Esme has known her whole life suddenly become suspects, each new one hitting closer to home than the last.

Unable to cope, Esme escapes the nightmare that is her new reality when she receives an invitation to join an elite ballet academy in San Francisco. Desperate to leave behind her chaotic, broken family and the mystery surrounding Lily’s disappearance, Esme accepts.

Eight years later, Esme is up for her big break: her first principal role in Paris. But a call from her older sister shatters the protective world she has built for herself, forcing her to revisit the tragedy she’s run from for so long. Will her family finally have the answers they’ve been waiting for? And can Esme confront the pain that shaped her childhood, or will the darkness follow her into the spotlight?

I really enjoyed reading this book immensely for many reasons. I wanted to know how Lily’s absence impacted her family and how Esme used ballet to cope with her younger sister being gone. I also wanted to find out what happened to Lily, who ended up taking her and why. Wanting to find out the answers to all these conundrums made this book a quick page-turner for me.

I was also interested in learning more about ballet from Esme’s perspective. She was a very interesting character, and I found her perspective in A Lily in the Light endearing. It was interesting to see how Lily’s disappearance impacted her life and how she ended up using her pain in her ballet performances. As a reader, you could tell that Esme was traumatized by her little sister’s disappearance and I found reading about her trauma interesting.

I also enjoyed reading this book because it had a happy ending. I’m not going into specifics about what happened other than saying that everything ends up being okay and I get answers to some of the questions I had while reading this book. It made me so happy that I found myself feeling emotional when reading A Lily in the Light because I was happy for the family. They had dealt with such a heavy loss when their child was missing that I was glad things turned out good for them in the end.

What was missing from this novel that I wouldn’t have minded seeing is a little of the story told from Lily’s perspective while she’s held captive. Not specifically everything that happens to her during that time, but just a little so that as a reader I could see what she was going through. Mostly because before her disappearance, she was one of my favorite characters in A Lily in the Light, so I wanted to see her more in the story since the book centered around her anyway.

Overall enjoyed this read and was sad when I finished it. I recommend this book to readers who love mysteries, ballet, and coming-of-age stories. It makes me want to read other books by this author to see if I enjoy them just as much as I did this one.

0

Looking to Start Over

I know it’s been a while since I last made a blog post here. It wasn’t intentional, life has gotten quite busy since my last one. My husband and I got married in August, moved to another state, and I got a new job since we moved.  Also the last book I read (Lord of the Flies) wasn’t all too enjoyable for me. As a result, I felt like I needed a little bit of a break from reading.

I unintentionally ended up taking a break from my writing as well. But I’m hoping that I can now get off my hiatus from here and get back into writing blog posts again. I know I’ve missed it quite a bit, but also realize too that when you need a break you should take one when your able to. So I’m also trying not to be too hard on myself for it.

So I’d like to take this moment and acknowledge that I’ll be starting over on my blog. Not in the sense that I’ll be deleting my previous blog posts or anything like that. Just that since it’s been a while since I’ve written anything, I feel like I need to start over in general. Give myself a reset here. I’m not planning on changing any of the type of writing I do on here since I enjoy my little niche of talking about books, writing and video games.

What I want to start over on is with regards to how frequent my blog posts become. I don’t want to keep doing what I’ve been doing in saying I’ll be back only to leave and be gone for months. I want to try and make my blog posts on here more consistent whenever I’m able to. Like writing my book reviews whenever I finish a book I’m reading and putting down commentary on a game I’m playing once I’ve gotten acquainted with the game enough to where I feel like I can honestly be myself when talking about it.

I know life has been hectic lately due to the way things are going on in the world right now and want to acknowledge how that also easily played a part in my hiatus too. But I’m tired of not writing anymore like I used to and am ready to be back here that I hope this blog post is well received by whoever decides to read it.

If you’re reading this and are new to my blog, I welcome you and thank you for taking time out of your day to read this! If you’re reading this but are someone who’s been following me, I thank you for coming to read this post and for continuing to follow me despite the amount of time that’s passed since my last post.

I hope you all have been doing well during this crazy time and can’t wait to hear from you!       

0

Can I Call Myself An Author Now?

For the second time in the past couple years now, I can say I have had a poem of mine published once again! My first poem published was in an anthology called We Will Not Be Silenced which shares countless stories through poetry, prose and art of survivors of sexual harassment and assault.

Me holding my copy of We Will Not Be Silenced, which contains what will be the first of many poems I’ll have published in the future.

What made me decide to contribute to this anthology about sexual harassment and assault is my own personal experiences. The long story short end of the matter was as I was growing up having to deal with being bullied in school by boys in my elementary and middle school years. The bullying I experienced in elementary school from boys my own age was physical, such as tugging at my hair during class to one of the boys sitting behind me on the school bus and punching the back of my seat.

Once I entered middle school, the bullying became more harassment in nature. In my 6th grade English class, I found myself hiding my face during class because one of the boys was always puckering his lips and making kissing noises at me. I tried getting him to stop to no avail. I also had to deal with another boy that same year telling me that he wanted to kiss me and telling me that he knew I wanted to kiss him too even though I never expressed any interest in him. At that point of my life, I’d never kissed anyone so I was worried that he might try to force a kiss on me one day.

These experiences and many others I experienced growing up inspired me to write my poem because the phrase I use to title my poem is a phrase many of us heard growing up when dealing with harassment from boys. But in my opinion, I see the phrase as a crutch to excuse boys from their wrongful behavior, which just continues to perpetuate and allow them to act that way as they grow up.

My most recent poetry publication is in an anthology called Through the Looking Glass: Reflection on Madness and Chaos Within. This anthology’s main focus is on mental illness and the experiences each of us have with dealing with our battle against our mental illness. Since mental illness is such a taboo subject, this anthology is an important step in the right direction to beginning the process of people actually talking about their mental health problems instead of feeling like their having to cope with them alone.

My big struggle that I talk about in Through the Looking Glass is with depression. I make a comparison between depression being an everyday fight against a demon that I have to slay and conquer every day because that’s how my experience with depression has been since I discovered I was depressed. I discovered I had depression when I was in college when I started having dreams and waking up with tears streaming down my face during the night and not understanding why. But it was not until years later in 2019 when my best friend lost her fight against cystic fibrosis that I discovered my depression getting worse. The depression I experienced during my college years was nothing like the demon I found myself fighting against once I lost my dear friend, one of the few people who I felt like knew me and understood me as a person. But I’ve been conjuring it one day at a time and I feel like I’m doing so much better now than I’ve been for a while.

 I also have another poem of mine that’s going to be published in another anthology that’ll be coming out in the near future that I’m excited about.

But one of the many reasons I wrote this post is now that I have some of my writing being published, should I consider myself an author? I mean most of the writing of mine that is getting published is poetry and each anthology is only going to have one of my poems, each one different from the other. But I do not know if I should consider myself an author because of these poems being put out there because I do not know if I feel like I deserve that title.

At the same time though, I love the written word so much and being published in any capacity has always been a dream of mine. I know technically I have been published since college along with since I started this blog back in 2015 after I graduated from college. But there is something different about seeing your name in a physical book you can hold in your hands. And to me (along with this blog of course), that feels like a huge accomplishment. Nonetheless, I still struggle with assigning myself the title of author because I still cannot believe I have accomplished this much in what feels like such a short amount of time. And I really cannot wait to see where my writing will go from here, what other publications I will find myself contributing to in the near future.

0

Missing You (Poem)

So last year, I wrote this poem in reference to the passing away of a friend of mine in 2019. I never did anything with the poem and stumbled upon it today while working on another task and realized how much I actually did want to share it here on my blog. I know after my last blog post I want to bring into 2021 the process of continuing my healing, but also want to share something with you all that I’m sure you can relate to if you’ve ever lost a loved one and are still grieving that loss today. Because loosing a loved one is never an easy grief to deal with, I feel like this poem will resonate strongly with people and should be shared so others know they aren’t alone. So without further introduction, here is a poem I’ve written titled “Missing You”:

Missing You

Yearning for
A friend that cannot be replaced.

A missing presence
That cannot be ignored.

A voice I can no longer hear
When I need someone to calm my fears.

Almost a year has passed
Since you left my life involuntarily.

But I miss you just as much now
As I did before.

Your friendship meant the world to me,
More than you’ll ever know.

Missing you,
Has opened a void that can’t be erased.

Has left my heart broken,
Drying off my tears.

But I know you would want nothing more
Then for me to live on and be happy.

So for you, my dear friend,
I live on with you in my memory.

So while I’m missing you,
I also know I’ll see you again one day soon.

So this poem isn’t me saying goodbye,
But me telling you, I’ll see you again soon.

           

           

3

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑