Good Bones - make something great from all the bad.

Hi guys, it’s been a while since we talked. And you know that I don’t write if I don’t have something worthwhile to tell you or speak about. So here it goes...
The other day I was watching one of my favourite tv shows and they happened to read a poem that gave me a lot to think about. So we usually as a whole, as a society tend to think positively and learn from the bad... well that is what we always try to achieve, what we dream ourselves capable to be 100% of our time. Sometimes it is like that, but sometimes we are kind of grim and sad. Sometimes we are completely negative and we miss that which is good, even if it is small. So what we as a whole should be doing ( and this is my personal opinion, nothing else) is trying to see the whole picture and to think outside of the box. That is what this poem that I hear made me think about. That there are bad things but there also good things and that we have to observe everything, see the whole picture of our lives and above all focus in the good stuff. On how we can make our world and the world of the people around us better. So here is the poem:

Good Bones

BY MAGGIE SMITH

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.

Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine

in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,

a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways

I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least

fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative

estimate, though I keep this from my children.

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.

For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,

sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world

is at least half terrible, and for every kind

stranger, there is one who would break you,

though I keep this from my children. I am trying

to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,

walking you through a real shithole, chirps on

about good bones: This place could be beautiful,

right? You could make this place beautiful.

So tell me what you think about this. You guys know how much I love to hear from you and your different opinions and ideas.
Well... guess I will see you around.
Bye now
Caro.

Don't Judge a Story for its Retelling

Today, I finished reading one of those books that achieve the impossible.
You see... I am one of those people that sometimes can be completely overtaken by a book (sometimes even a movie). And in the last few days that was exactly what has happened to me.
Now, don't hate me or anything.... this is my first real review of a book, and that is because I felt really compelled to write about my feelings while reading it.
The book that I am talking about is CINDER & ELLA by Kelly Oram.
But lets start at the very beginning... in order to do that I need to state some facts:

            

             1- I am a bookworm: I almost literally live reading books. 

            2- I am highly judgmental and very choosy of what I read. I can't pick up anything and read it. The summary has to trapped me first, no mater what. 

            3- I pretty much look down most of the classic's retellings that I encounter  when browsing the web or the libraries for new stories to read. (don't misunderstand me, I love classics like Cinderella, the Beauty and the Beast and Snow White. But books with always the same kind of obstacles for the heroine, at least for me, given a little time, become boring). 

            4- In order for a book to be good has to make me want to keep reading it instead of going to sleep, even if I have to force my eyes to stay open.

So, when I came upon this book on Goodreads, I was a little skeptic. You know, being a retelling of Cinderella and everything. I though that this would be another story where you can find the poor girl, with the evil stepmother, the two evil stepsisters and what in my view is the most irritating thing of all: not knowing the identity of the man or woman (whichever maybe the case) that you will fall in love with.

Ha! I was so wrong!!! From the very beginning, this book entrapped me. I couldn't escape it, even if I wanted to. And there where times when I wanted to stop reading and think of something else, because at some point I felt so in tune with the main female character, that when she felt like crying I WAS CRYING.

Whenever she felt a lump in her throat, I felt it too. whenever she was depressed, I was too; and when she was finally happy I was too.  I felt like I understood her completely, not something that happened to me with characters a lot.

Sometimes I wanted to stop, because I was crying while reading the book or laughing out loud in public. It was really embarrassing, it wasn't just a smile on the train from work, like always, but a laugh that all the passenger could hear. I AM BEING SERIOUS. HONEST TRUE EVER!!
Even though, I also have to say that being from two points of view was a turn down in some part of the book. Don't misunderstand me, both lead characters were complex, interesting and with their depth. But, when I was crying, so com-penetrate in Ella's story, the book changes chapters and lead me to Cinder's (Brian) Story were you can find the typical Hollywood problems: the fame, the struggle for power and what I always hated: the biatch that always tries everything to separate the two leads in love, turning some parts of the book in a big boring drama, and not in what for me generally was: a truth life drama. Those which are really worthy of your time.
But well, everything has its goods and bads.
Another point that believe that I should mention is that while enjoying so much the story, I was expecting a little more of the end. For me, it was a little to simple; I wanted more. Maybe it was my desire to keep myself inside Cinder and Ella's story. But.... you can't always get what you want....
Basically, you don't get anything like a Cinderella story or something like that. What you do get is a lot o family drama, getting to know one another and yourself. Coping with a lot of bulling, a life with scars and disabilities, and in the middle of all of that: knowing who your true friends are.
You don't have cliches in this story, just the ones that sadly are part of everyone real lives.
Summarizing, I loved it. I cried, laughed have lumps in my throat and grew with Ella, more than everything. This books was one that when reading it, I could feel it too.
Below you have the summary if you are interested:

It’s been almost a year since eighteen-year-old Ella Rodriguez was in a car accident that left her crippled, scarred, and without a mother. After a very difficult recovery, she’s been uprooted across the country and forced into the custody of a father that abandoned her when she was a young child. If Ella wants to escape her father’s home and her awful new step family, she must convince her doctors that she’s capable, both physically and emotionally, of living on her own. The problem is, she’s not ready yet. The only way she can think of to start healing is by reconnecting with the one person left in the world who’s ever meant anything to her—her anonymous Internet best friend, Cinder.…

Hollywood sensation Brian Oliver has a reputation for being trouble. There’s major buzz around his performance in his upcoming film The Druid Prince, but his management team says he won’t make the transition from teen heartthrob to serious A-list actor unless he can prove he’s left his wild days behind and become a mature adult. In order to douse the flames on Brian’s bad-boy reputation, his management stages a fake engagement for him to his co-star Kaylee. Brian isn’t thrilled with the arrangement—or his fake fiancée—but decides he’ll suffer through it if it means he’ll get an Oscar nomination. Then a surprise email from an old Internet friend changes everything.

Try, try and keep trying :)

Sometimes we also have good days. You don’t know when will it hit you, but a day of good mood is one the stuff that dreams are made off.

Days when you say to yourself: no matter what I will never give up on anything.

Well, that day is today.... At least for me it is.!!!

“I won’t give up, no, I won’t give in till I reach the end and start again...!”

That is what is in my head right this moment. And I bet that you know that phrase, Right? ;P

Life can be awful, can be marvelous or even some in-between. But what we have to keep in mind is to never give up. At first, things can be difficult, or even seem impossible. But, if we put every thing we have in us, we will reach our dreams.

I am following my dream. Even thought is complicate to reach, I keep going. I already have the NO, so I am going for the YES.

And I will keep going till the day I die. ‘cause nothing and no one can bring me down. At least no for a long time. If I fall down I will always get up.

As long as I have my imagination and my family standing by my side I am capable of of getting anything I want and dream about.

Today I feel good. Maybe spring and summer are at the corner, or maybe I just know that people will try to bring me down but they are nor going to accomplish anything of the sort.

I want to sing and dance and smile and laugh because of nothing. Life is good. And as long as I keep thinking that it will always be good, even thou I can and I am going to stumble.

Through think and thin, through heaven and hell I am going to keep going.

That is my motto.

Breathe, keep Calm and keep going just being true to yourself

What happen when you hate you work? When you feel that most of the time you are treated like a lesser punching bug? Moreover, what happen when you feel that you are lost? When you do not understand most of the things that you are suppose to work with?

Actually you end up hating the majority of the hours of you day.

To be more specific and in order for you guys to better understand the situation, let me start at the beginning.

Life in general is not easy. We all know that, right? Even more when you choose a university course which does not permit you to develop in many different areas. But guide you to one or two path at most. That being said, I want to clarify that I studies International Relations and don’t want to become a diplomat. I like the idea of working as a political annalist, but not for a determined government. - In our country, they changed constantly and they differ in theirs ideas too much for my taste. -  So that’s not even on my mind.

So what happens when you like social studies but you don’t have anything related to work on? And worst, you need to work? ‘Cause you need the money.

You end up working in whatever you can find or wherever you are accepted.

In my case, that is an administrative position at a company which main topic is natural sciences. The opposite of what I like.

Yes, my mom is a doctor, so I am able to understand some of the things that I have to do. But is part of my being as a social sciences student, to ask the why of everything, to find the causes and consequences in any circumstance. Never to just accept things as they are because. So, when I start asking questions and the answers don’t come, or they ones I got are not enough, the problems arise. This situation reaches a point where the people who I am working with, tell me that I am insufferable and to just shut up – sometimes with others words - or simple enough they do not talk to me and make angry faces. This ends creating an uncomfortable work environment.

That is when I ask myself what am I doing here?

Sometimes is even worst. Obviously, everyone has it bad days and sometimes they use another person as a punch bug. But lately, there has been a lot of fighting between my boss and other important members of the company and in the end I am the usual punching bug. If is not because I am too sleepy in the morning and do not talk enough, ‘cause I talk too much. Or my view of the universe is too closed and my opinions and ideas too shorts. Or simply because I am such an innocent in my way of understanding thing that it cannot be possible. They are always telling me “Te falta y te falta mucho” – you still have a long way to go to understand things. But if understanding means to learn how to have some malice in me, how to be sometimes a bad person I don’t want to understand, I want just to be me, no matter what.

Recently I read something about being a punching bug, it said: “be prepared to respond and not react to their behaviors. Remember the KISS method – Keep It Simple Sally. Focus on the one thing that you can do either at the time or later if you choose to, in order to have control over how you want to respond and not react. It’s okay to calmly say to that person something like:” I’ll have to get back to you on that.” Don’t take it personal, it’s their stuff to own. So let them do just that and you learn how to respond and not react.  It may not be easy, but it is simple.”[1]

That is the reason why I wrote this, to focus on what I can do and to not pay attention to people who want to change me.

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[1] Fragment obtain from: http://marypfeffer.com/overcoming-being-someone-elses-punching-bag/