If I…

When someone says reading fiction has no benefits, do not pay this cliché any heed, because for me characters formed by pure imagination have been more inspiring than anything I have experienced in real life.

In books you get the choice, you pick the characters and in reality choice picks you. And I would like to be in a place where I have more power over what influences me and my disposition.

The character that gave me the power or I’d rather say an opportunity to look at life and myself from a different perspective was a girl, from a young adult romance novel, suffering from cancer. And no she wasn’t debilitated but her thoughts were confined to the outcomes and side effects of death. I am talking about Hazel Grace Lancaster.

I know we have read enough about introverted, socially awkward book-nerds kind of protagonists. But Hazel is different she is mellow yet fierce, shy yet confident. She doesn’t worry about inane things. She doesn’t care about leaving a mark because seriously what’s the point? She never sought attention from a room full of people she barely knew. It didn’t matter how many people wanted her as long as she had few whom she cherished.

She didn’t worry about picking up on new things or jam packing her ‘to-read list’, she read the same book over and over just because she loved it and she wanted to. She cared for quality, not for quantity of life. And she found the quality in little things. There’s this line in the book that says ‘she wasn’t loved widely but she was loved deeply isn’t that more than most of us get? ’ Which is true because these days we are all running after numbers, crowds and fandoms, meanwhile distancing those who truly care for us.

We have no idea how to be satisfied with less. Hazel found infinities in less. This was all because she was smart and she accepted the fact that life is not an endless flowing river, it’s a lake and eventually she will reach the other end. Just because none of us have cancer it doesn’t mean that our life is not a lake. We are very similar to her, as long as we are aware of transience of life, we can tame the present like she did. Totally unbothered by the future yet very aware of its reality.

1) Agustus Waters

What I loved most about his character was how straightforward he was about his feelings from the moment he met Hazel. He was so strong and the most real person in this story, who lived with fear of oblivion. He had a way of making people he loved feel special, wether it was hazel or his friend Issac. He had his flaws but that didn’t stop him from being happy.

2) Laurie (Little women)

I mean not including this one would be madness. A cute boy next door, who is utterly humble and down to earth regardless of his beauty and riches. Who is there with you through thick and thin. One who never gets exhausted from taking over so many emotional dependencies. A keen observer and listener.

3) Ellis Jones ( Age Of Adaline)

He is the smart one, another keen observer who falls for someone reading Braille. A man with warmth in his smile, consideration in his approach. Who lives in a loft and cooks hotdogs on the first date, i mean who doesn’t like beauty with brains and cooking skills? !! An ambitious guy with unproblematic family, in addition to all that he refers to books as flowers!!

4) Glibert Blythe ( Anne With An E )

An absolutely dreamy persona of a smart, kind and gentle young man. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that this character is just a kid, because of his calming aura and his ability to fall in love with a girl who has been rejected by the world. For him to love Anne for her intelligence, red hair and freckles, it showed how he formed his own unique perceptions rather than following what society tried to ingrain in his mind. His ability to love was beyond the boundaries of race, social class and appearances.