We all LOVE love.

       
         Happy, happy, happy end of April, my friends! I hope you have enjoyed your spring so far! Let's just say that my spring has been very...eventful.
         Today's topic of discussion is love. L-O-V-E. There are so many songs, movies, books, poems, dreams, and diary entries about love these days (and plenty of days in the distant past), but what is it, really? I am not one to answer this question, but I do have plenty of thoughts on this topic. In my opinion, the definition of love varies throughout one's lifetime. From birth to middle school, love for me was always family-oriented love, the love that everybody has the right to experience whether they are related to their family by blood or bond. This is also the beginning of friendly love, those friendships that you want to last a lifetime just because every second with that person seems to go by ever so quickly and they just get everything that you say and all of your hobbies and weirdness, and they seem to love it. This love is innocent and deeply needed as a foundation for life to come.
       The next level of love lasts from middle school to high school, perhaps even college. For some, this stage might even end earlier, depending on how set in your ways you are. This stage is often times not even considered love, but for me it is. This love is dramatically deeper and more passionate than that of the young school children. This love makes you do foolish things and it makes you cry for endless nights and makes you feel like crap, but you still crave for it over and over again. This love is like a drug for teenagers and young adults, repeatedly harming you but becoming addictive as soon as it enters your body. This is the love that is depicted in most YA books these days, except in those books, many of the couples stay together for the rest of their lives (or at least the authors make it seem that way). It is rare for these romances to last a lifetime and everybody knows it, but when you're in one, nothing matters. You seem to forget everything and lose your judgement and forget about other people and it starts to rule your life so much that when it ends, it's a complete shock. I know that I'm making it sound terrible right now, and the truth is, it's not all bad. It's a necessary learning experience. Events like the first crush, the first crush that likes you back, the first date, the first kiss, the first boyfriend, these things are necessary. They come at different times for everybody, you may think that yours happened too late or too early but it didn't. And I don't know, maybe you're a 17 year old girl that has yet to have her first kiss and you feel like a total loser. You're not, trust me.
         The last level of love involves commitment, lots of commitment. I don't know much about this stage, seeing as I am only 15 years old, but I see it as deciding who you're gonna be for the rest of your life. This love could be a love toward another person that results in a family of your own, it could be a love toward the family that you already have, or it could just be a love toward yourself. Not everyone gets married, and that's the truth. Many people will be happy and completely satisfied with their lives even if they don't choose to marry another person. This option seems much better then being married and divorced so many times that it barely hurts by the last time. Love is a precious thing, and it should not be wasted. Do not throw out your love simply because society tells you that the only way you can be happy in life is if you find someone to be with you for forever. If you don't spend your love on another person, spend it on yourself.
                                       Signed,
                                                   Victoria.

It's 3:40 AM, and what am I doing?

      I'm studying for Biology. This is not a book review or a sentimental post, this is merely me stating what I have discovered in the past few months.
      Sleep. What is that again? Oh yeah, it's a rest period for the human body. A state of tranquility for most. An escape from what's real to the realm of imagination called dream land. Yes, that. I vaguely remember a time when I actually got a sufficient amount of that thing we call sleep. 
     So I have a quiz tomorrow. A vocabulary quiz. Such a simple thing that I have had so many times before, with grades ranging from a fifteen to a ninety-five, but never a hundred. I am not a hundred/A+ student. In my school, 98% of the population is made up of kid geniuses/A+ students. The other 2% are regular teenagers, perhaps slightly smarter than average. I am of that two percent. I am sad to say that when the teacher mentions the range of grades on a test, I am at or around the lowest grade. I wish for the circumstances to be different, but that's just the way it is.
    What am I trying to say? For the 2% of us that are not geniuses, getting A's and sleep is utterly impossible. I do all of my work, study myself to the point of madness, and it's still not enough. So I've taken sleep out of the equation. And, guess what? Poof, no D's, no F's. Only a middle-ranging C (Not even a low C!), and a low B. The rest are B pluses and higher. Isn't that uncanny? If I keep this up, I'll have straight A's by June!
      Seeing as it is now 4 AM and my alarm will be going off soon, I will not even make an attempt to sleep. In the morning I will simply splash my face with ice cold water and load up on coffee and be on my way. Ah, success at its best.
                                             Signed,
                                                       Victoria.

Across the Universe.

      Across the Universe by Beth Revis is yet another futuristic book with advanced technology, controlling rulers, etc. The first chapter actually takes place in present-day America with Amy and her parents. You are instantly sucked into a scene that just radiates with Science Fiction. As Amy watches her mom being cryogenically frozen, the setting and situation is described. A new Earth-like planet was found that is believed to be able to sustain life. A city-sized ship was built to start shipping people over to the new planet, but there is one problem; the journey is 300 years long. That's where the freezing part comes into play. In order to settle into the "New World", they must have experts in every area, from agriculture to weaponry. All of the "essentials" are frozen and stored on a separate level of the ship. Both of Amy's parents are essential to the project. Amy, however, is nonessential. She must decide whether she wants to abandon everything she knows on Earth to be with her parents, or if she will instead stay with the rest of her family, her friends, and her boyfriend. An intense ride; and that is only the first chapter.
       In my opinion, this book was thrilling to the very last page. I felt that in the end, nothing was truly resolved, and that is acceptable since it is the first in a trilogy. It's is a great read for fans of Matched and The Hunger Games! Read it and be amazed!
                                  Signed,
                                            Victoria.

Wither.

Hmm....where to start? Wither by Lauren Destefano was not bad....actually pretty good if I must say! I know, I have failed to have negative feedback in any of my reviews, but I can't help myself!
To start off, Wither is yet another book about a fucked up future (excuse), but this one has a little bit of a twist. This less than ideal future was actually created as a result of mankind's efforts to fix the world. You see, a cure was found for cancer, and STD's, and plenty of other stubborn diseases of our time. But there was an unpredicted twist to the cure. The generation that first received the treatment lived long and happy lives, but the generations following them certainly did not. For some reason that is unknown, every single female born after Generation 1 die at age twenty, and the males at twenty-five. Yes, a morbid concept, but extremely suspenseful! This flaw in humankind just gives the people a reason to live life to it's fullest (if you can afford to do so).
Anyway, the main character, Rhine, was swept up and taken into a life of glamorous polygamy (yep, i know). You see, polygamy is popular in these futuristic days, for they are trying to make as many babies as possible in the short amount of time that they have. The problem is, Rhine doesn't want this life. She already has a brother that she loves. She is content with her un-glamorous life. So she has to find a way out.
Exciting, eh? For those of you who liked Matched, Wicked Lovely, or Entwined, this book is perfect for you!
                  Signed,
                              Victoria
P.S. I'm in the process of reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis. A review will be coming soon!

Been a long time, friend!

I'm back! Yes, last time I posted it was February, but I'll be posting as regularly as possible. Changes have happened...new school, new friends, new books! I'm hoping that these changes are for the better, but who can say ("Wicked" reference)? Anyway, let's get to the books!
     Well right now I'm into classics like the boring person that I am (blah, blah, blah, yeah I know your snoring already). I'm currently reading a novel called "Anthem" by Ayn Rand, and it's simply fantastic! If you're one out of the millions of uninformed Earthlings, this book is part of my all too large addiction of dystopian novels! It is written in a very weird way (read it and you'll know). If you want to know more, just picture a cold world with an all-controlling government. No individuality, no real names either, only numbers as identification. One of the best things about this book is that it's only about 100 pages long, and it's so much more relaxing to read short books, you know?
                Signed,
                     Victoria

Love Month is Here.

It's February, and on Valentine's Day, I will be reading.

"Matched" by Ally Condie took me two days to read. It was amazing, and I'm pleased to say that there will be a sequel coming out in November. There is something strange about that book, though. After reading it I got a feeling of emptiness inside. It ended on a sad note, and I will not reveal much more. For all of you who have never heard of "Matched", it is a love story about a girl named Cassia who lives in a futuristic society where everything is planned out for you, from your meals to your death date. Even the person you fall in love with is picked for you, and for Cassia her "Match" just happens to be her best friend Xander.

Overall, Matched was a fantastic love story unlike any other. It was quite refreshing to have a story that broke the boundaries of the typical love story, with feelings that were purposely conducted by the Society, or the government-type leaders. Those artificially made feelings felt as real as any other ones, though, and it was a laughing-crying trip throughout the book.

It is a book that cannot be missed out on.

Read it, and love it.

Signed,

 Victoria.

From quotes to souls.

      I saw this on Tumblr, and I have no idea why but I took great interest in it. It is a passage from Sarah Dessen's "Lock and Key". Apparently, Sarah Dessen is somewhat of a genius when it comes to love stories, because I seem to come across plenty of inspiring quotes from her books. Then one thing led to another in my mind, and I got to thinking about quotes to put in the 8th grade yearbook. A lot of people seem to put that same quote from Kung Fu Panda, the one that goes, "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That is why they call it a present." That's nice, I guess, but it's a little too Confucius for me. I particularly like C.S. Lewis' quote (which I recently saw as my cousin's facebook status), "You don't have a soul, you are a soul. you have a body." which makes a lot of sense. You are your mind. Your mind is encased in your brain, and your brain is in your head. Then the brain does all these things behind your back, so to speak, like breathing and making your body move. Anyway, I always seem to think about things that are bigger than me. For example, when I went to North Carolina on vacation, I saw a shooting star. The first thing I thought after I made a wish was, "How many people in the world saw that?" Is it wrong to think in an "Over the Rainbow" mindset? Society tells us to dream big, the sky is the limit. So once you reach over the sky, I guess it's too much.
         Going back to quotes, good writers make good plots. But the genius writers, the ones who really got it all figured out, they're the ones who create memorable quotes, right?
                                        Signed,
                                                   Victoria.