What do you do when the rug is pulled out from under you?

When the things that you hoped for are not going to happen, what do you do? What do you do when you are forced to see that the ideas that you believed in and had faith in are wrong. That your paradigm is wrong? From this book we see two reactions. Once gave up hope in all he knew and felt he could not live another moment – he quite. Another kept struggling and fighting to survive with hope, and yet when he gave up hope he died too. To have hope is what keeps us going when life and situations turns miserable for us. Finding ways to keep hope will help us get through the challenges we face.

How do I develop better character?

In the story Jane Eyre, Jane develops her character through her experiences, relationships, and religion just as I do.  In Jane’s case she believe that she had no family, no help in the world.  In reading the story we see that she had several people who helped her learn and develop.  As I read through this, I started to look at how my experiences helped me develop my character and also how I would like to develop my character.  One of the great things about reading great books is that I can look at myself each time I finish a book and ask myself how I can use this book to change me.  I can make deliberate choices to help me become the person that I would like to be.

Where are my doors?

Reading this book has reminded me how often in my life a door has appeared in a wall that I thought surrounded me.  When I look at my thoughts of what I wanted to be as a teen I find it fascinating that I have not done most of the things that are on my list because of situations that stood in my way.  For a long period of my life I just sat next to the wall so to speak – I did not look for a door and had no hope of change.  I just stewed.  And the more I stewed the less real I became.  I started to lose the character traits that I have valued about myself.  I actually had to have someone show me the window for me to recognize it and see it but after that I began to grow again as a person.  Finding the Door in the Wall helped set me free, and now I know that whenever there is a wall placed before me, that there is a way to get through that wall.

I stay with this learning style because it is the one that I grow the most in.  I can look back and see how far I have come as a person and know that I am a better person.  It is not about the knowledge it is about me.  I finished up my bachelor degree in 2014 and it was not really a big deal to me because I did not grow much personally.  I read a lot of chapters and wrote a lot of papers but they did not change me much.  Yet there are books that I have read that changed me completely and excited and encouraged me to stay on my path.  Schooling makes me tired, Education makes me excited.