So I just finished reading The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.
The last time I read this book, I was 16-years-old. I specifically remember placing the paperback, hard-copy book inside of my English Comp. textbook during junior year, pretending like I was reading our reading assignment, which was The Crucible, or something cliche like that.
This book was interesting to me for many reasons. One being the fact that I never really read much. My escapes have always took place inside of a visual medium. I remember thinking how much me and Charlie, the main character in the book, were alike and yet nothing alike. I took life very seriously for a 16 year old. I was a goofball but extremely emotional and that’s where I became attached to this character and his story.
I saw Chbosky’s movie adaptation of the book over Christmas break and was blown away. I’ve always been a nostalgic person and I’ve just come to terms with this. For a while, I treated it as a negative thing. Previous memories have always depressed me. I’ve moved on from that and now, those memories simply give me a warm, comforting feeling. It’s nice. Needless to say, the movie instantly brought me back to high school, to my teens. Once that happened, I asked myself, “What would 16-year-old me think of me now?”
A lot has changed, I’ve mentally grown, and definitely have taken a few steps backward along the way. But dammit has it been fun. I took a leap outside of my comfort zone to chase a dream, and though it’s not exactly what I had thought, I’m living it. And I’m loving every working, waking second of it. So here I sit today… I’ve been reading a digital copy of the book on my iPad for the past few weeks while working. And today I read the last page. I read this last page while sitting in Hingham, MA on a interview set for a reality TV pilot. I work in the camera department. I am sitting in the corner of a room amongst very high profile celebrities pretending I’m working on my iPad, but no. I’m reading the book I was reading 8 years ago while pretending to be working. So all in all, 16-year-old me wouldn’t believe me if I told 16-year-old me about what we’ve done in the last 8 years. And despite the fact that every single aspect of my life has changed, in some weird way, nothing at all has changed. And I’m okay with that.
