Responding to Just Listen

      Currently, I am reading an enticing and riveting book called Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, which is a wonderful book about a young girl (Annabel) struggling with family issues and lots of stress and pressure on her. Her sister has developed Anorexia, her best friend is no longer her friend, and she is being pressured into modeling which just adds to the already abundant amount of stress. But then she meets a mysterious and unordinary boy named Owen who changes her world and shows her a whole different view on things.   One thing that really got me thinking was how quickly her outlook on things changed just by meeting this one boy.
      Annabel is very mainstream, as in she likes shopping, pop music, and she models. But Owen on the other hand likes Mayan chanting music, has his own radio show, and he dresses in head to to black. After just one day of getting to know Owen, Annabel was acting completely different. Owen claimed he never lied. Ever. So Annabel went home and told her mother she wanted to quit modeling. Something she had been trying to tell her for years. Owen had changed her, in a sense, in just one day. I thought there was something interesting about the fact that all these years she's had people telling her what to do and when to do it, and then all of a sudden she meets Owen and she can finally fend for herself. Another example is when she first listens to his radio show. She's never really payed much attention to important issues throughout the world, and then she hears his insightful and intellectual thoughts on his radio show, and her wind is blown. All of a sudden she is opened up to a whole new world beyond herself and her family. She learns about issues that are truly important, and all of a sudden, she has a whole new outlook on things. She is more open, and understanding, and not as whiny and obnoxious (not that she ever really was...). I think it's fascinating how just meeting Owen actually changed her life, for the better and how she had changed as a person because of this positive experience.
       I can relate to Annabel because I have definitely been opened up to new and more important things in my life, at some point or another. I remember when my dad first told me that John Lennon died because he was shot. From a young age my dad always had me listening to the Beatles, so when I heard this I was shocked. As just a  3 year old, I was hysterically crying when my dad told me this. I couldn't believe that someone would actually murder him. And although I may not have learned from it and turned it into a positive change in my life, it definitely impacted me. This devastating news was something that I probably had never imagined, being just a 3 year old. I think learning about something so terrible like that definitely would change you. No matter what it is or how old you are, if you are exposed to something like that will definitely effect you. Sometimes it could make you a better person all around, or sometimes it could make you feel horrible. Although, whatever the outcome may be, I believe in always staying open to learning about new ideas and issues in the world, because you never know how it may impact you in the end.