I’ve been on summer vacation for almost a week now. After much procrastination I finally decided to clean out my backpack today. Most of the papers in there were irrelevant worksheets meant to simply kill time, but I found a couple worthwhile projects in there. One of those projects included notes I took for a book I had to read for English class.
Whenever I read a book I take notes on important ideas from it because I’ve found I forget most of what I read. The book I had to read for English was Rules by Cynthia Lord.
It’s a book about twelve-year-old girl who just wants to have a normal life. She’s spent years trying to teach her little brother “the rules of life,” but because he’s autistic he’s unable to control himself and he frequently embarrasses her.
Anyway, below I’ve taken several quotes from the book and elaborated on them. Even if you’ve never read the book there’s still some good lessons to be learned here.
“Sometimes you’ve gotta work with what you got.”
-Despite coming from different backgrounds and perhaps being naturally inclined toward certain things, we all have the power to make the conscious decision to do the best with what we’ve been given. Regardless of where you come from you have the power to choose where you’re going to go.
“Sometimes people answer because they didn’t hear you. Other times it’s because they don’t want to hear you.”
-This quote is interesting because it can be applied on a deep metaphorical level. For example, often when I tell people they have the power to do whatever they want with their life they disagree because they’ve been so socially conditioned to think otherwise. Other times however, they disagree simply because they don’t want to take responsibility for their life.
“Some people think they know who you are, when really they don’t.”
-Sometimes I take offense or feel inadequate when someone I just met gives me the cold shoulder. On a logical level I now understand they’re not rejecting me, they’re just rejecting their five minute first impression of me. I’m still working to fully grasp this on an emotional level, because once I do I’ll have less fear of rejection and I’ll be able to meet interesting people at an accelerated rate.
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If you enjoyed this post, be sure to pick up Cynthia’s book here.
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