Love, Stargirl

Today is a productive day. I'm checking things off my list. One to-do that has been on my list for a while is to explain in a blog post why I choose to title my blog "Star Girl."

If any of you have read Jerry Spinelli's classic novel, I'd like to talk with you. Stargirl was one of those books I read when I was younger and it left a huge impression on me... but to this day I can't tell you exactly why. There is something about the character Stargirl that I want to emulate, but I'm not even sure I can emulate her because she may just be a metaphor for something. I'm going to give it some more thought and get back to you.

In the meantime, here are some quotes from Stargirl and Love, Stargirl (the sequal) for your reading pleasure:

"Live today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Just today. Inhabit your moments. Don’t rent them out to tomorrow. Do you know what you’re doing when you spend a moment wondering how things are going to turn out with Perry?

You’re cheating yourself out of today. Today is calling to you, trying to get your attention, but you’re stuck on tomorrow, and today trickles away like water down a drain. You wake up the next morning and that today you wasted is gone forever. It’s now yesterday. Some of those moments may have had wonderful things in store for you , but now you’ll never know."
— Jerry Spinelli (Love, Stargirl)

"You’ll know her more by your questions than by her answers. Keep looking at her long enough. One day you might see someone you know."

— Jerry Spinelli (Stargirl)

"Do not follow me! Let's just be fabulously where we are and who we are. You be you and I'll be me, today and today and today, and let's trust the future to tommorrow. Let the stars keep track of us. Let us ride our own orbits and trust that they will meet. May our reunion be not a finding but a sweet collision of destinies!"
— Jerry Spinelli (Love, Stargirl)

"Nothing’s more fun than being carried away."

— Jerry Spinelli (Stargirl)

"This was the start of a period that blurs as I try to recall it. Incidents seem to cascade and merge. Events become feelings, fellings become events. Head and heart are contrary historians."
— Jerry Spinelli (Stargirl)

"I’m not my name. My name is something I wear, like a shirt. It gets worn. I outgrow it, I change it. "
— Jerry Spinelli

Flipped

Have you ever found a movie that you thought was pure brilliance but other people just don't seem to get it? Flipped is one of those movies for me. Most people I've talked to who have seen it (and there aren't too many of those) say, "Oh, it was really cute" or "It was fun." Those statements, while accurate, just don't satisfy me.

Here are 3 reasons why this film rings my bell!

1: The first reason is personal. I've just never met a character that I connected with as well as Juli. I love her passion for life-her amazement at the view from the top of a tree. I love her thirst to understand people and how seriously she considers and tries to puzzle out the bits of wisdom she receives from Chet and her Dad. It's a drive to do everything possible to understand life correctly. I love that! If anyone every wanted to understand the way I think, this movie gives some excellent insight.

2: I love being able to see two perspectives on the same story as the movie flips between Juli and Bryce's point of view. Isn't it amazing how different two sides of a story can be!? They don't even have the same feel/flavor to them! What would it be like if we could just flip to see the other persons view/feel of a situation?

3: I love seeing change! Bryce could have never guessed in a million years that some day he would fall for Juli Baker. For 7 years he saw her as plain, weird, and not socially accepted. Then he flipped! To him she became beautiful! The opposite can also happen, as was the case for Juli. Lucky for Bryce she flipped back thanks to some wise maneuverings on his part. We can never know how our perceptions of a person will change. Sometimes we place people on pedestals and sometimes we place them in pits. It often takes time and a whole lot of personal experience to be able to see people the way they deserve to be seen.