CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE TEENAGE SOUL: Reading Response

I'm not really that far into "chicken soup for the teenage soul: the real deal" by Jack Canfield, Mark Hasen and Deborah Reber, but i can already say that it's different. It has many different voices, perspectives, story lines, etc. I think that there are a lot of different ideas from the actual text about friendship. But I think one of the most important one's is the format.

Having the book be like a newspaper almost is like a friendship. you can easily skip ahead in this book and completely understand. But, you could be missing out on some of the best stories and lessons that will really matter to you. Plus, you have to read some bad to know when a good one comes along. The same way in a friendship. You could easily skip ahead all the bad parts in a friendship and still be happy, but in the end, you won't have put any effort and niether would the other person, and that person won't really have touched you in your heart (vise versa). You have to work on something for it to be real and matter.

The structure also shows how complex a person can be. They're going to have some parts that you don't like and some that you love. It's not really possible to like every little thing about your friend. If you can see and realize the parts you don't like about your friend, but still love them and care, you're really a true friend.

But i think it goes even further than that. In life, all the bad moments are what really make you who you are. They help you realize for yourself whats good and bad and what you like. If you skip all those parts, how would you even have an opinion on something? Like I said before, without any bad you don't even know whats good. This book has really showed me how much one little step along the way can make a big impact on the person you are today.