Waiting For You

 

I know it’s been awhile but I’m here with my first book review!!!! I hope you’re ready!

Author: Susane Colasanti

Title: Waiting for You

This was my first attempt to read a Susane Colasanti book and yes, I succeeded. The book is about a troubled girl who went through a whole year depressed due to anxiety. Unlike some books I’ve read the character doesn’t blame the anxiety for her depression she knows she can control it but in some ways it’s easier to give in than be strong and hold yourself together. I’ve felt this way through the years and I know it is more likely that most people would fall into depression rather than stay firm and be strong for our family and for ourselves. Despite her depression she wants to make sophomore year a year to remember. Marissa and her friend Sterling always make a pac every year that they will have the best year ever. When she walks into school she realizes that that isn’t very possible. Her lost best friend she reunited with tries to be more and she realizes he isn’t who’s she ‘Waiting’ for. But when the love of her life breaks up with his girlfriend and she finally has her chance the feelings come back, her house is falling apart and she finds that not everything has a happy ending.

About the Author:

It all started in northern New Jersey because that's where I'm from. My hometown is surrounded by a bunch of other small towns in a remote area known as The Middle of Nowhere. In elementary school, I walked down our endless dirt driveway to get to the bus stop. We lived in the mountains, and on a clear day you could see New York City. There were a lot of woods and deer and woods and horses and farms and sprawling fields. And then there were more woods.

Which is nice when you're older and you go back to visit and appreciate nature and all. But growing up there was beyond boring. Although I was raised in the country, I've always been a city girl at heart. So I focused my creative energy on visualizing the kind of life I wanted to live when my real life started. I made a lot of wishes about how I wanted my future life to be. I couldn't wait to graduate and go away to college.

The cool thing about college is that you can totally reinvent yourself once you get there. If you want to be a different person, college is the perfect opportunity to make that happen. Because dude! No one knows you there yet. So you can be the person you've always wanted to be. You can be the best version of yourself and build a shiny new life. How sweet is that?

Not that you have to wait until college to be your most excellent self. Every day is an opportunity to become a better person - someone who tries to always be a friendly neighbor and does what they can to make the world a more peaceful place.

But it was hard for me to be my best self when I was in high school. Most people say that high school is the best time of your life. Question: Who are these people? They've obviously forgotten what being a teen was like. Here's the thing. Junior high and high school test your survival skills. You will probably never be as depressed, mortified, confused, frustrated, devastated, or lonely again. But! This is a good thing. Surviving hard times means you've become stronger (and way more interesting). Emotional strength not only helps you be a happier person, it makes it easier for you to help others be happier, too.

I was an outsider. Kids picked on me for being a nerd and doing weird things like writing song lyrics all over my Keds, or being the only one laughing in class when no one else thought it was funny, or actually loving science. Now I own my weirdness because everyone knows that outsiders grow up to be the most successful, creative, loving people. But it was lonely at the time. I don't have any brothers or sisters, so I spent tons of time alone growing up. I had my group of friends, but I didn't really feel like any of them got me. I was trying to hide some embarrassing things about my life and couldn't connect with them as much as I wanted to. Books were my true friends. I would read my favorite books so many times the pages would start to fall out. I was so thankful that the authors wrote those books, that their characters inspired me to never give up.

Giving back to the community is something I've always felt really strongly about. I believe in karma, that if you put positive energy out into the Universe, you are creating positive energy in your own life. It was easy for me to identify with others who needed help in some way, and that's how my passion for volunteer work originated. I've been a hospital candy striper, a Girl Scout leader-in-training, and the arts & crafts director at a sleep-away camp for kids affected by AIDS. I was a buddy and home helper at ActionAIDS in Philadelphia and a community outreach educator and curriculum developer at GMHC in New York.

I spent a lot of time imagining my ideal life and how I could create that life when I grew up. These dreams motivated me to work hard so I could go to an excellent university. Kicking academic butt really does open doors for you, even ones that you never knew existed. When I got into the University of Pennsylvania, it finally felt like my real life was starting. And living in Philadelphia rocked my world because I'd wanted to live in a city for so long.

I've always had a thing for astronomy. I even had my own telescope and liked sketching the moon and planets. My seventh grade science teacher inspired me so much that I knew I wanted to become a science teacher when I was 12 years old. After Penn, I moved to New York City and got my master's degree in Physics Education from New York University. I loved going for walks around Greenwich Village at night, feeling how amazing the energy is here and imagining how awesome it would be to live in this neighborhood one day. And now I'm here. The power of creative visualization is really strong. My ultimate goal (besides seeing When It Happens become a movie) is to own a home here. As with all of my other dreams, I will never stop believing that this is possible. Always dream big!

When I started teaching, I lived on the Upper West Side and walked home from school every day. But then I heard about some schools in other neighborhoods that didn't have basic supplies like books or paper or enough desks. I heard how too many kids didn't have good science teachers who cared about them. And it just made me so mad that privileged kids in rich neighborhoods get all the resources, while the kids who need those resources the most never have enough.

So I packed up my stuff and switched schools. I was a high school Physics and Earth Science teacher in the South Bronx from 2000 to 2007.

I survived a lot of hard times growing up. But those painful experiences gave me insight and strength. I wanted my students to know that no matter how difficult things were, they could still create their ideal lives.

It took me a while to realize that it's possible to have more than one career. I wrote When It Happens and Take Me There while I was a teacher. Then I made an executive decision to leave teaching so I could dedicate the next chapter of my life to writing teen novels. The purpose of my life is to help teens be their most amazing selves. So not being a teacher anymore was a hard decision to make. How could someone who worked her whole life to get to this place decide to leave it? But then I thought about the way reading saved me when I was younger. And how I could reach more teens as an author than I ever could as a teacher.

Now I'm a full-time author. I never thought I’d switch careers like this, but that’s the thing about life.  Life is a wild thing.  You never know where it’s going to take you, or how your journey might unexpectedly change.  But as long as you follow your heart, you'll end up right where you belong. And that’s the ultimate destination.

*Since I don’t know her personally I don’t feel like I should write about her life, so this biography was copied from her website.*