The book Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, was a favorite of mine growing up. It followed the story of Charlie the new kid in town which reminded me of myself because I was moving to a new high school from middle school so I too felt like the wallflower of school. The shy kid not too many people knew struggling with the internal conflicts of self identity and finding who I am meant to be.
However Charlie was also going through 2 deaths of people very close to him and I had not suffered the same way as he had. I went through my own experiences yet this book made me emotional and feel like I could connect with each character. Charlie had experienced trauma and was suffering, he needed friends to help save him. I felt this same feeling and sought out to be more involved to bring myself up out of the dumps. As he is getting more comfortable with his new life his relationships get complicated which most everyone can relate to. This book made me cry several times and it was even made into a movie that made me cry even harder because you know, the cinema makes everything much more dramatic.
This book changed the way I think of myself and others. I had not really known too much about mental health problems like depression and anxiety except people were sad and scared. This was until I had my own diagnosis of issues, I was fully able to relate and understand characters in ways I had not before. An example would be when Charlie grew exceedingly more sad about his friends going off to college, I could understand more fully about the anxiety he must have been feeling. Those kids were his only friends and he was more anxious as the time with them was getting shorter because he was afraid of being alone. I hate being alone as well and I could make connections with him and the other characters as they were growing up through high school.
-Lydia
A Novel Idea 