Hurricane Katrina=Life As We Knew It

Okay so I was on Hulu, procrastinating as usual, when a commercial, those little poops, came on. The commercial was seeking for help and donations to the people in Japan, who were very much affected by the natural disasters that occurred there recently. This made me think of the hurricane, hurricane Katrina, that happened in New Orleans in 2005. Well you know how people today say that  if our president then, George W. Bush, had sent more help to New Orleans, or if the city had warned people earlier about hurricane Katrina the affects wouldn't not have been that bad? Well I think Susan Pfeiffer took the story of hurricane Katrina and twisted, or made the story a little more intense to make the story of this fanTABuloUS book I just finished reading, Life As We Knew It

It's a little complicated to explain why I think this, but I'll try my best. In the beginning of the book, when the astroid first hits the moon moving it closer to Earth, shouldn't scientists have none about it? I mean they did know about it, but they didn't think it was going to be that big of deal. When something...so important in our atmosphere has the slightest chance of being harmed, you take it to heart. You do mega amounts of research, and if you are sure nothing will happen, you still have a back up plan just in case something does. The U.S.A did none of those things, and even worse after the asteroid hit the moon and the world was now ending, you heard nothing and saw nothing about the President going to cities who had been severely hit to help, and there was nothing about scientists making up a plan to help everyone. It seemed as though everyone was on there own now, just like the people in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina. Why does the government just ignore people in their time of need and when things like this happen? Is it just the easier way out? Are they just lazy? Well I'm sorry but that's just messed up and community cannot run like that.

I can't really predict anything about what happened to Miranda, and the rest of the world in this crisis, because I already finished the book and know what happens to them, but I do think that if Susan Pfeiffer had continued writing the book instead of ending it where she did, the people in small towns would slowly bring things back to normal on their own because the way the government was acting, no way anyone was getting help from them! I think this because...that's exactly what ended up happening. I might be wrong though, that's just what I have heard, and if I am right about Susan Pfeiffer basing Life As We Knew It off of hurricane Katrina,  that's what also happened.

P.S Miranda did become more grateful about everyday things, and I'm trying to too! (See last blog post)

Give Thanks

Okay, okay, you caught me, I'm reading Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer, for the sixth time. It just never fails to bring out all different kinds of emotions in me. Some times, I even feel like I am Miranda Evans, the main character, and the moon really did get hit by an asteroid, so now it's much closer to Earth, and the world is ending. When good things happen to Miranda while she tries to fight for survival, I start smiling, and when an unlucky things occurs to her, I start tearing up. I guess it's because Miranda's life event  are written in a diary, so I feel closer to her, more connected, and have grown to love her, even though she can be an immature brat. Like one time, she said to her mom, that she was feeding her little brother, Jonny, because she loved him more. Really Miranda? You know that's not true, your just trying to be difficult. Anyways, after reading this book many times, I have come to one conclusion about the message of the book: always be thankful for what you have.

Now as a kid, I used to hate when my mom was "Nina, you should be thankful that your so lucky." in my head I would always want to scream MOM, STOP, I KNOW I'M LUCKY, AND I'M THANKFUL FOR IT SO WILL YOU PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT. But now I get it. I think Miranda does too by then end of Life As We Knew It. Before the moon got hit by an asteroid, and cause the end of the world, Miranda was complaining about the silliest things, such as, school was giving too much homework, or that her mom wouldn't let her start figure skating again, and even that there wasn't any chocolate in the house. Then the unthinkable happened, and she realized  those things weren't important anymore, now her complaints were about being bored, or wanting electricity, and being hungry.  Right now, if the internet crashed, electricity went out, and suddenly all the food in our fridge was gone, I think I would also stop worrying about small thing in life. But I don't think about these kinds of things because I don't notice them, how dependent of them I am, and lucky I am to have them! I can't imagine my life without them, and I think that goes for most teenagers. At least the ones I know. Just think about a teenager...that isn't texting in the street, playing video games, going on Facebook, eating a big bag of chips, using the light to do last minute homework, or listening to music. Does something drastic have to occur for people to be more thankful of things that they don't realize basically shape their everyday life? I hope not.

I think that's exactly why Susan Pfeffer wrote this book though. So we can learn the lesson to be thankful of everything around you, without anything drastic happening, like it did to Miranda. I mean I know Miranda in the end of Life As We Knew It knew not to complain about school giving too much work anymore, and just enjoy the little things in your life. In society these days, it takes way too long for the whole community to learn something. For example: Global Warming. We have none about this issue for quite some time now, and were still just now noticing that we need to step up our game and save our planet. Seriously? WAKE UP SOCIETY. If we don't start learning lessons, this lesson that Susan Pfeffer is trying to send out specifically, we are going to be in so much shock when something big finally does happen and everything we weren't is gone.  So guys, if your mother is like mine and says to you  "Be thankful for what you have,"  it might be annoying but still don't take it as much as a joke, because it might be gone from you in a second.