"It's Kind of a Funny Story" Ned Vizzini
This book is actually what sparked my big question. The focus of this book is on a boy who was checked in to a mental hospital for serious depression and thoughts of suicide. He develops depression soon after he starts at a new high school he was addmitted to where only the best and the brightest attend and he already has his life planned out almost to a tee except for which high class career he will pursue to become rich and sucessful in life (lawyer, doctor etc.) He eventually comes to the conclusion that this school and lifestyle, if he chose to continue, would eventually end his life. Through the counsling provided in the hospital he figures out that he needs to change schools and that he wants to be an artist and always has but societies views on sucess and how it is measured as a whole scewed his overall goals. He learned to follow what he loves and to make life worth it.
This book helped me form the question on how society has a way of putting out guidelines to formulate ideas of what sucess looks like, big house, nice car, hot spouse etc. Craig used this outline to base his life off of until he really had to fgure it out. Craig finally realized there was no point in pursuing a career unless he absolutely loved it and he discovered he had a knack for art in the end even if he ended up poor he knew he would love doing it and this is how he redefined sucess. I would absolutely recommend it, it helped me internalize plans for my own life and how I should maybe go into things open minded in college and find something I truly am passionate about.
"Jonathan Livingston Seagull" Richard Bach
This book was a last minute, give it a shot, why not kind of book. Since my broader question is about life and that was the exact description of the book I figured why not and it happened to be a great choice! In following the life of a seagull (Jonathan) you learn meaningful life lessons about non-conformity, simplicty, believing in what matters to you and limitations should have no affect on youre abilities to do what you love. This of course relates to my big question through Jonathan's abilities to look past the ignorance in the Flock when they outcast him for not just flying to eat but for flying for fun and for learning new things and loving every second of it, and his ability to continue learning and to come full circle back to the Flock with love and kindness in his heart for them and teaching others to fly as well. Here Jonathan goes against what his society see's as sucessful and creates a new bar to reach to live happily, as we should all learn to do and be sucessful with.
I would absolutely recommend this book, it's a quick read but it had a lot of meaning in it's words. The story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull is moving and certainly memorable, anyone who just has an hour or two can read it and appreciate it's meaning.
