Another Week Another Post

And here we our, week 3 of the school year..........wow it's going slow, I mean seriously feels like we've been here a month already.  Whats that? We have been here a month.........seriously?  Right..................so the book I read this week was My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  The book was about a boy named Sam Gribley who grew up in inner city New York.  His whole life his father had told him about his great grandfather who owned land in the Catskill Mountains and set everything up to be a farmer only to learn he wanted to be a sailor.  So one day Sam decides that he's going to go out to his great grandfathers and live off the land.  Now I should probably point out that Sam is of around 8th grade age so like 13 or 14 the book never actually says, and he's lived in the city his entire life............ya you can see where this is going.  He's got no idea of what he's doing out there and many times in the story he questions how he will survive out in the wilderness.  Eventually he develops some basic survival skills and is able to actually live off the land.  Then comes the next problem in, America if your different you stand out and people don't like different (a sad fact yes but beside the point) so people try to change different into normal.  Sam has to avoid being seen by people because they'll tell others who will make him go home.  This story is really about a boy who ran away from home not because his home was a bad place or anything, quite the opposite it seems, his father even comes and visits him a couple of times, but because he wanted something else.  This idea is relatable  to anyone because at one point or another all kids think about running away.  There are various reasons for this: boredom, desire to be some where else, to find a new beginning, to make people regret how they treated you, etc.  The point is all kids have thought of it some have done it, most either chicken out before they do it or during because we all fear change.  By running away Sam faced this fear and thrived on it.  The question to all of us is would we be willing to change everything about ourselves because we wanted something else or would we stick to the familiar because it's familiar?  Right well that looks like a good place to stop and let you think, until next time see you at the beginning.........