Everything affects everything.

Yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity of hearing the author Jay Asher speak at the Ridgedale Library.

If you don't know who that is, he wrote the book Thirteen Reasons Why (left). I'm not focusing on the book itself for this blog post, but rather the message it sends. It really is a suspenseful and strong book, and if you want to know what it's about, click here.

Initially, this seemed like a terrible book to me, why would anyone read this? It sure puts a damper on your day. But I was wrong; the things that were dealt with by characters in this book are very real issues that many teenagers go through every day.

The author himself was amazingly hilarious. He told jokes and laughed and told personal stories about his childhood. He told us how and why he decided to write this particular book, and what an impact that had had on him.
He then spoke of the message the book sends.

(Disclaimer: I will try really hard not to go all SBS* for this part, I really will. Promise.)

Jay Asher told us that everything affects everything. What you said to someone yesterday may have made or broken their day, but it may be something that you said without thinking. The smile you gave someone in the hall could have brightened their day. The rude remark may have been "just kidding" to you but hurtful for that person.

Basically, we don't know. We don't know what people are going through. As human beings we are naturally selfish and think only of ourselves, and don't think that anyone else could possibly have it as bad as us (I mean, my mom took away my phone the other day. My phone. Do you realize how traumatic this is?!)

So...try to think about that. And I will too.


(if you can't read it, he wrote "everything affects everything" on the bottom of the page)

On a less preach-y note, he has a blog! He's a really funny guy, as mentioned before. He blogs about all the places he goes to for his book tours, which I thought was pretty awesome. He updated his blog with the Minnetonka stuff last night, so you can read that if you want.


I challenge you to try to find me in the picture that's second to last on the page. You can do it. I believe in you.

Be a nice person.  

Mrs. Cardona, do I win for cheesiest blog post ever?








* Not trying to say that SBS is bad in any way. Don't hate me.