Jae's Contemplations of Life

FINALLY! I finished this book yesterday after having the book for months after it's release but never had the time to read it. This is one of my favorite series in Young Adult literature. The writer is amazing and I love her style. Her characters are not easily forgettable, her character development is so well done that it craves a mark on my memory. The tone and the use of words in some of the passages reminds me greatly of Chinese sayings. I remembered the thing I was most excited about this book was because of Elias taking over the duties of the Soul Reaper of the waiting place.

This installation was rollercoaster of feelings from the beginning to the very end. I believe there are only a few sections of the book that really broke my heart to a million pieces and I am pretty sure there are a few pieces that will never be found.

Helene who had everything from family, honor, respect, to a boundless future fell from the top to the very bottom. She probably has the most tragic back…

Why live? What exactly did we grow up for? I have been having some nice conversations with several of my close friends. We grew up in hopes of finding a good job after college right? Or going to a trade school and land a good job at a reputable company. We grew up hoping we'd make enough money to buy things we want and have a family right? 
Did you guys know in the 60's...a man could work a full time job and be able to pay for a house and provide for his family. Nowadays, you need two full time workers to just manage to scrape by to afford a house, car, and start a family. But the downfall is you don't have anyone to take care of the kids or the mother stays home but doesn't get paid for being away from work. 
In this era and world, trying to attempt a normal life is causing people to be pushed to the edge of a cliff. In the good old days, the man would work a full time job and come home and have time to play with his children, hold conversations with his wife but now…

Everyone spends a ton of money to get through college if they are not lucky enough to get grants, scholarships, or some kind of federal aids, right? In this era and society, it's drilled into everyone's heads that if you don't get a degree you won't be able to land a good job. It is also drilled into everyone's head that there are bachelor degrees on every street corner. You need to get an MBA to even get considered for a good office job causing a lot of young people to drop further into the wormhole of debt. Also, causing a lot of high school grads to turn to options like trade schools instead of four year colleges and universities. 
In school, advisors and professors make it seem getting an internship is a piece of cake...finding a job related to your field as long as you have a minor to accompany your major would be much easier and less of a pain. However, that is not the reality. If you don't know someone in a company, you won't be able to land a job i…

Never forget your roots. Many people forget their roots as they grow older. Forgetting where they first started once they've reached a high point in life. 
A lot of people nowadays forget where they came from. No one was born high and mighty or perfect. We all had to do soul searching and give a lot of hard work to reach where we are today whether it be working hard to move up a in company, working hard in school, working hard to have a place in a family, working hard to prove oneself. I am sure all of us have lost dreams to share, hopes that got shattered, injuries and scars that we had and carried on proudly. 
Never forget where you started from because that is where it all began. 
If you were once trampled on, ignored, seen as nothing, scapegoated, you should never forget the pain. You should never forget it even when you become a CEO or someone big and powerful. You were once at the bottom of the barrel too. You spent sleepless nights working hard to move up and be someone in…

Would your 8 year old self be proud of you right now? When we were children- we fantasied what and who we would be ten years in the future more than likely. When we see a television show that shows a cowboy that is righteous or saves lives and rid the world of evil- we think that's who we want to be. When we see a doctor, nurse, or lawyer and see the amazing things they do- our desires get swayed again and we tell ourselves that we must do good in school so we could like them one day. Yet, things never go as we plan unfortunately unless you were born in a rich and well off family that offered you that luxury of having things your way or making it through college for the most part. I don't know about you folks but my 8 year old self is cursing the daylights out of right now if that was possible. 
But did you ever think that you would possibly find yourself stuck in retail work after four years of college ... probably not right? Retail is probably the brutalist field of work fo…

This has been a topic that I wanted to talk about for a long time. I took CTA for most of my school years and work years until recently where I made the move from Chicago to Indiana. Driving is the pretty much the only option to get from Indiana to my work in Chicago. Being one of those people that usually drive for at least an hour to get to work and to get home everyday is not fun. I try to avoid the expressways as much as possible because idiots who believe the expressway is a nascar race track fly down those roads like there's no tomorrow. 
However, that is not the issue right now. The main issue I wanted to talk about is how annoying it is when people do not use their turning signals when they want to switch lanes, making a turn into a parking lot, or when they're coming from the opposite direction and wanting to turn into a parking lot on your side of the street. It is so irritating when these scenarios happens and it happens every single day more than once. Have none o…