Traveling with Before Ever After

Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto (I'm so proud of you Ms. Samantha! Yes, guys! She's a Filipina) :)

As much as I'm a fan of Happy "Never" Endings, I also adore happy endings. I came to love Shelley as I am traveling (meaning: I enjoy reading the book) with her. I can say that I loooove Max's stories but there are times that I go back to some pages just to remember the other stories. Still, I really find them very believable!

I learned life lessons in the book. Many life lessons.

I admire Shelley, I even share some of Shelley's frustrations about life. Like Shelley, I fall in love with Max and his chickens! :)

"Escape" -- she wanted to do that with her life but the trip taught her the opposite.

I was really attached with the other characters that I cried with them as they share the most painful moments of their lives.

I ♥ everyone but Dex (story) pinched my heart the most and Rose' courage occupied a big space in my heart. :) Who are they? well... Read the book!

Some lessons/quotes from the book:

(Rose)"I have every reason to be sad, but i don't have any reason to mourn. People grieve when things end. Nothing has ended tonight. One of has simply gone ahead as we always knew it would have to be...."

"Life is a strong drink  served up in an extremely short-and fragile-shot glass."

"... I'll always have something that not even time can take away. Pain. ...because when I've forgotten everything else, I'll feel that ache... that tightness in my throat... that heaviness in my chest... and know that I loved a woman once and she loved me back. It's proof that I existed and so did she."

"..People loved differently. They loved slowly and cautiously because their hearts broke more easily than clay."

"Death is never swift... No matter how those left behind would like to comfort themselves with the thought."

"Life is a barter of choice and consequences."

The Past Life

np while doing this blog: Ready to love again

Who am I on my past life? One of the questions I ask myself these past few days. Who am I before? Haha. I believe in reincarnation. :) And whenever I experience dejavu, I always think maybe because I have dreamt of that certain situation or (I assumed that) it happened in my past life. Sorry i have such a weird mind! haha So now, I have three hypotheses of my past lives as a human being.

Disclaimer: photo from tumblr not mine

PAST LIFE #1
Maybe I was nicknamed by my parents with a boyish name. Remember when i blogged about how I have certain love for boyish names for girls? Haha. So maybe, I was named Samantha and I always use Sam. or I was named Louise wherein my teachers are confused if I'm the Louise boy or the Louise girl. :D
And because I have that boyish name, i started my early life being independent. Maybe, since I was a young adult i started living away from my family. Possibly, I'm a travel writer (okay?dream on girl!) i assumed this because whenever I go out of the house, I have the to bring along with me a small notebook and a pen. I won't leave the house without it. And maybe on my past life, i'll meet him on a truck full of people (okay?! I dreamt about this before!) who are on their way to a suburban place. But, because I'm a travel writer the relationship won't be forever (I'm so weird)... The past me have settled down in a place far away from the city and started my own travel book.

PAST LIFE #2

In my life today, I loooooooove hot air balloons, though I haven't seen a real/ride hot air balloon (only on televisons and pictures), I always feel a connection with it. Yeah, weird. And I don't have any fear of heights, i always want to look down whenever I'm up (ex. riding a ferris wheel etc.) So maybe I own one! LOL, how i wish! Maybe I was Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) on The Ugly Truth. In the movie, Abby is a tv producer.. such a powerful job but she's also naive and a super duper control freak. I don't know how i came up with this past life number two but I remember Abby is a control freak. Today, i also worry about imperfect outcomes of certain things, I may not be very particular about it (but deep inside it really breaks me if things won't go my way). So maybe I still have that "possible" link with my past life. :))

PAST LIFE #3 (this one is very different or I just wished this was my life (past/present/future)

After reading Nick and Norah's Playlist and forever wishing to have Blair/Serena's life....
Maybe my past father owns a recording company and i can go to any concerts, gigs and events without lining up. HAHA! I LOOOVE MUSIC!!! who doesn't.... Maybe like Serena, I also have a Dan Humphrey in my life, someone who wrote a story for me. :)) Or maybe i had a Nick who always gives me mixed tapes. Okay i'm dreaming. again. Or maybe in my past life I play the drums... hahaha I always want to try playing the drums :/

Serena with a Dan Humphrey

So what do you think of my assumed past life? How about you? what do you think is your past life? :))