To leave a comment, click on the header. You have to be "in" the post for the comments to appear. THANKS!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Flashback Friday: Temporary Hopelessness

*Image Snatched from Lifeless-Silence on DeviantArt.com*

The YA stories I love to read are full of romance, and adventure, and tingly angst.  But I was reminded this week of the darker side of the YA experience: hopelessness.

That gut-wrenching misery where explaining why you're upset does nothing but produce more tears and you cry until your eyes ache.

The feeling like the world may be better off without you and anyone who would miss you would get over it soon enough.

The simultaneous urge to push everyone away and pull them in as tight as you can at the same time, because you need them and don't want them all at once.

And after the tears are gone, and the hopelessness has been washed away by a good cry, the clouds lift and light slowly creeps its way back in.

It's that emotional volatility that reminds me so much of the YA experience.  Maybe it's just me, or maybe I don't read enough contemporary YA, but I don't remember being as strong as the characters I read about these days.  I could break, dissolve, disappear into nothingness, only to reemerge the next day like a Phoenix reborn.

Anyone else have those memories they'd like to share?  Today's catharsis day on The Daily Harrell. :)

6 comments:

S.A. Larsenッ said...

Jessie I just love this post. Simple, concise...I'm tweeting you.

Ah, yes, I have plenty of hopeless moments from those YA years. Just not ready to share. Maybe I'll finally use this writing thing as therapy and put them in a book. LOL

LM Preston said...

Wow, what a description. I'm wondering if my kid can take that kind of book. Maybe I'll give it a read first and ask her what she thinks. This is another spin on the type of stuff we both like to read.

Beth Fred said...

When I was in high school, a girl took the fake ponytail out of my hair and threw it across the room. How is that for hopeless? Haha.

Carolyn Abiad said...

Have to feel hopeless before you can appreciate hopeful I guess.

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

It sounds like my kind of book....

Melissa said...

Emotional volatily.... pretty much sums up exactly why I love YA. Both to read and to write.

Post a Comment

I love hearing your thoughts! Thanks for dropping by.