Will You BLOOM or Will You SHRIVEL?! A Media Matters @ WFHS Post
The novel Bloom by Elizabeth Scott is a super good quick, easy read!
Lauren’s life is pretty good. She’s dating the hottest guy in school who is, not to mention literally PERFECT and mega-popular, making Lauren semi-popular by default. She’s in the jazz band though she doesn’t really tell people about that. And she makes decent enough grades. So, like I said, Lauren’s life is pretty good.
So……….why doesn’t Lauren feel as perfect as her boyfriend looks or as perfect as her relationship supposedly is?
Everyone says that Lauren is the luckiest girl in the school because she’s going out with Dave, and she is, I guess, and she knows, but Lauren doesn’t feel alive.
Being with Dave is safe, and BORING (at least in my opinion) and though “safe” is a good even great thing for some, Lauren longs for something more.
Then Evan shows up. Lauren’s dad used to date Evan’s mom but that didn’t work and Evan moved away. But now he’s back, and sitting next to Lauren in her world history class. After that first day in world history, everything was different. Lauren no longer looked at Dave (her “perfect BOYFRIEND”) that same way, and she couldn’t stop thinking about Evan.
Not that she really wanted too…
This book helped me understand, and what I hope will help others understand, is that your happiness needs to come first sometimes. Now I’m not saying that you should always put yourself before others, and neither was the book, but sometimes you need to put YOU first.
Someone once told me that if you don’t like a book you don’t have to finish it. The same concept can be applied in life. If you like where you are or the situation you’re in do something about it!
In the novel Lauren has a really hard time decided what the “right” decision would be. Had she figured out her own feelings before EVERYONE else the decision would have been quite simple.
Sometimes we need to BLOOM even though others will SHRIVEL.
Media Matters @ WFHS 
First off I want to say terrific blog! I had a quick question that I’d
like to ask if you do not mind. I was curious to know
how you center yourself and clear your mind prior to writing.
I’ve had difficulty clearing my mind in getting my thoughts out.
I truly do enjoy writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually lost just
trying to figure out how to begin. Any suggestions or hints?
Appreciate it!
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There are days, for me, that I just don’t want to write. So I don’t. There are other days that I just want to get it all out there. On those days, I try to turn off everything that will distract me and just type. I don’t worry about mistakes, or typos or anything. I just type. Then I go back and proof and re-read. For me, it is very cathartic. The biggest thing is, don’t force it. One of the things I told my students is if you feel like venting about something, type it out instead of saying it. Just pretend the keyboard is another person and tell your story. That is the easiest way for me. One student in particular found this information to be helpful, and while he thought he had nothing to say, he actually turned out some really funny posts. Hope this helps!
Here are a couple of his:
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