If any of you haven't read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I suggest you go do that right now. It is the most incredible piece of literature that will ever sit in those little hands of yours. A book like that doesn't come around too often. But maybe that's just how I feel for it, this great swelling in my chest, this longing to read it just one more time. It's beautiful and fleeting and each time I feel closer, feel more connected to Charlie.
Everything about that book holds me in a vice, sends me reeling when I, once again, flip through the pages and cry along in just the same spots or maybe a few more, depending on the mood I'm in. And, oh, Perks is an emotional roller coaster. You hit so many highs, so many lows, feel so much more than you have ever felt before. When every emotion collides and you feel nothing and everything all at once, that's when you know you're reading Perks.
I think there's a bit of Charlie in all of us, no matter who we are or what we're doing or, god, how old we are. And if you can't feel Charlie, there are so many others. So many others to know that somewhere, someone like that exists, with all of their flaws and beauty. I've been the wallflower; I've sat back and watched the world go by and felt what they feel and nothing of my own. And I've felt infinite. I've been running so high, grasping at straws and holding tight to that feeling of everything and togetherness and the world just MOVING all around me and I've been right there and it's incredible, as fleeting as the feeling is. It ends, the inhibitions return, the night moves on, and you wipe those tears and stop laughing. In moments of absolute truth and beauty and realization, I think everyone should laugh and cry and scream out the window. Let everyone know how you're feeling.
If I ever become the author I want to be, the poet I feel inside, it is my greatest wish to write something as brilliant as Perks. It won't, it can't, happen, but that doesn't stop me from wishing for it.
