Persevering Paige

At different times in our lives, we feel that certain things would help us out. Lately I have been thinking a lot about what could help me out. I will admit, it is a day to day process. Some days I think a big tub of chocolate ice cream would do the trick, and some days I feel like I’ve got it all under control. However, some days come around and grab you by the throat. These are the days that the minute your feet hit the floor in the morning, you know it’s going to be a hard day-nonetheless you are still thankful for it, you did wake up after all. 

Anyway, I am a huge fan of ‘The Fault in Our Stars’. It’s a movie that really hit home for me for about 5 million different yet equal reasons to be truthful. I didn’t watch it when it first came out but my best friend had fallen madly in love with the movie and insisted that I watch it-so I did. I didn’t watch it because I wanted to. I originally boycotted it because I thought it would be too sad, and I thought I had had my fair share of sadness. When I did watch it, it was for the sole purpose of making my friend happy, because she wanted me to see it more than anything. She told me that she wanted me to watch it because she thought that by watching it, I would be able to as fully as possible understand what she was going through. She was battling cancer herself. They say that timing is everything, and coincidentally, we were both 18-the exact ages of Hazel and Gus! 

I had many things happen to me post watching it. My first reaction to the movie was, tears, obviously. My second thought, was, “How did he do this?” It was put together so well and eloquently, and as someone with the hope of publishing my own book one day, I wanted to know just how you did it. After watching the movie though, I began to feel that I better understood my friend, and I wanted to thank you for that. That seriously meant the world to me. What meant the most, though, is how much we bonded over it, and how much going back and watching it/thinking about it has helped me since my best friend has been gone. It has made me sad in doing that as well, just as one can imagine, but reading some of the amazing quotes has made my soul feel squeezed in times of such sadness. 

I want to share my favorite pieces of the book.

1) My first and foremost favorite part is when Isaac is at the podium telling Augustus what he will say at his funeral. Isaac had eye cancer, retinoblastoma (I believe) and was blind due to surgery. He said, “And when the scientists of the future show up at my house with their robot eyes and tell me to try them on, I will tell them to screw off because I don’t want to see. I don’t ever want to see a world without Augustus Waters.” Nothing, and I literally mean nothing, more accurately describes how I feel about my friend. People overuse the world ‘literally’ nowadays but I mean that.

2) The Augustus Waters quote of, “I’m on a roller coaster that only goes up my friend.” I am in love that more than words can begin to describe. It has given me my mentality for my hardest days. I try to think like that-it’s inspirational.

3) When Augustus writes the letter to Peter Van Houten. My favorite line was, “I’m a good person but a shitty writer. You’re a shitty person but a good writer.” Perfection.

And 4) When Hazel is talking about Augustus’s death and says, “It was unbearable. The whole thing. Every second was worse than the last.” Reading that, I feel like someone jumped into my heart on April 8th and wrote down my heartbeat…because I’m pretty sure instead of those lines, it would’ve said that.

I also fell in love with Augustus’s character, and how he was the hope of the story, and if there were to ever be a real life Augustus Waters, I know he would give hope to the world. The way he talked about Hazel, and the way he looked at her were to die for. Judging by how hard I fell in love with Augustus Waters, maybe that is some of the reason behind why I became her Augustus Waters. Seriously, my best friend and I dressed up like Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters for Halloween. Okay, admittedly, she had her costume first and mine was decided/thought of days later-but either way, I think it’s pretty cute.  

 
I love everything about this picture as much as I love your book. (It is almost as if I make a better looking Augutus than I do my real self, Paige.)

I guess the purpose of this piece of writing was to say that since I do make a very good looking Augustus Waters, if I were actually Augustus Waters, I would have used my Make-A-Wish wish on you making a TFIOS 2. I am in no way suggesting that due to how the story ended, that there should be a sequel, I just think that it would be nice to read, and I would be a huge fan. Not to see Hazel fall in love with someone else. I was thinking more along the lines of Hazel dealing with Augustus’ death & maybe she’s in community college like me. It would just be nice to see how she puts her life back together after losing her best friend. Although, even with the tragic ending, it almost ended ‘just right’, if that makes sense at all. 

I guess that is just some food for thought. Thank you John Green for writing that book. I will forever keep returning to the words in its pages to give me strength, both in life and as a writer.