It is easy to tell when a book has been well loved. The spine has bent, the pages have been become whisper thin, and if you’re like me, there are highlighted lines and annotated notes scrawled along the edges. My copy of John Green’s "Paper Towns" bares all of these markings. I think it’s because I aspire to be like the protagonist, Margo Roth Spiegelman.
"Paper Towns" is a story of freedom, and adventure. It revolves around Margo’s departure of her little town, and a boy, Quintin, who wants to bring her back. While the story itself is told in Quintin's perspective, the entire thing is really about Margo, and her longing to live, and to be herself, and not what others wanted her to be. I think her character is so admirable, simply because of this. Margo knows she wants to escape, and so she does. One day she just gets up, and leaves, and that’s it. While many have deemed her character selfish, I think Margo is remarkable, and quite honestly, I strive to be like her.
Sometimes I feel as if my life is this waiting game. I wait for Friday night, for the commercial to be over, for my next birthday to come, and while I’m waiting for the future to arrive, I’m missing the present. I’m looking for happiness in the vast vortex of the unknown instead of acknowledging what is right in front of me. Margo did not wait. She did not ponder her unhappiness but found the source of it, and cut if off.
I know I’m not the only one who sits around and waits. I think everyone is guilty of it, now and again. What I have trouble comprehending is why we, as culture, allow it. We accept that Monday’s are dreaded, Wednesday’s are a midpoint celebration, and Friday’s are the best day of the week. We wait for this day, only to repeat the cycle yet again. I don’t think you should wait, or I should, or anyone else for that matter. That does not mean you have to leave town like Margo did, but it does mean the acknowledgement of something more, and the determination to go find it.
There will be moments, many moments, in life when I am forced to wait. I am not oblivious to how society works. But I think the recognition of wanting to live, to no longer procrastinate in life, is more than most people can say. So when Monday inevitably creeps up, and when I am tempted to roll my eyes and skip my morning class, I am going to be a little more like Margo Roth Spiegelman and make the most of what I have right in front of me.
