Adulting can be shocking. There are the bills you have to pay, taxes you have to file, savings you have to put up. The monetary aspect is enough to twist you into a pretzel. But there are still the cognitive and emotional aspects to it you have to consider. How will you deal when the workplace ordeal corners you? How will you face the music when overwhelming heartaches surgeon you?
Josie Townsend is all too familiar with the shock. Raised in a Catholic home where her first book is based upon, she thought life would be full of contentment and enduring love. She didn't have the faintest clue that it will be fraught with layers and layers of hardships and emotional letdowns. Her books serialize how a picture-perfect home has a distorted view of reality. She also reflects on what happens when kids raised in such a sheltered upbringing can lose grip when presented with what reality looks and feels like. The world may continuously be in sixes and sevens, but Ms. Townsend's reiterates that these are all part of coming to terms with maturity.
Her first book, "There Was Once A Girl," hits close to home because it's based on her real-life experiences. It tackles how stifling it can be to grow up in a Catholic home that doesn't characterize well and through values for children. Josie, the protagonist of the story, feels this inconsistency. She has to put a pretty face for everyone outside the home but has to brace herself for the horrifying discipline she has to face when returning home. All the while, she is deluded by thinking that if she just endures, she will spend the rest of her life everlasting love and contentment. Her perspectives shake when themes of domestic violence, suicide, drug and sexual abuse, and raising children alone come into play. Even with these re-orientations in perspective, the book is filled with values of trust, love, self-worth, kindness, and generosity. The book is also conflicted by how these values can be countered and turned 180 degrees to embolden frustration and emotional pain.
Josie Townsend's second book is entitled "Can't See Around Corners" about twins who are exposed to their own worst sides when they got outside their doting home. Sharon and Annie were seen as the best of friends and the poster children for "sisterhood." Bitter jealousy, betrayal, and deceit wreak havoc in the story. They are forced to reveal their true colors to survive the new world they find in. With everything getting out of hand and the stakes getting higher, this bitter sibling rivalry just proved to be something else entirely. Shaking bonds to be susceptible to destruction shakes up Ms. Townsend's second book.
Both books intersect at its theme of journey to maturity. Josie Townsend challenges you to examine and re-learn your thoughts and perspectives time and time again as you come to terms with maturity. This journey to maturity is not only with cupcakes and rainbows but with doom and gloom as well. Also, emotional maturity does not always have to equate to your physical maturity. You can be a 30-year old who does adult duties but a 15-year old with your like-minded 15-year old friends. But it's okay; to quote New York Times bestselling author John Green, "Maturity is not an instantaneous moment but rather a series of events that led up to it."
So go ahead and enjoy moments, cry at times, laugh at best. Be bold in coming to terms with maturity.
Comentarios