# data[].attributes.body
"But there he was, he was exhilarated, because he'd wondered all his life what his profession should be, and now he was certain, absolutely certain that he wanted to be a paramedic. At moments when other people could only stare, he wanted to be the one to step forward" (Mandel 11).

I connect to what Jeevan says here about discovering that he's meant to be a paramedic because it reminds me of how I felt when student-taught. On my first day, my mentor teacher told me that it felt like I'd been teaching for years--this made me realize I was doing the right thing with my life, that I was called to teach. Even though it's a job that many people view as hard and kind of terrible, I want to be the one that does it.

# data[].attributes.body
“When Kirsten was in the houses, she searched for celebrity-gossip magazines, because once, when she was sixteen years old, she’d flipped through a magazine on a dust-blackened side table and found her past” (Mandel 40).

This moment highlights Kirsten’s search of memories. She finds comfort in her past before her world was turned upside down, and the photograph of Arthur, her friend who died as the outbreak started serves as a bittersweet memory of the ones she loved. This relates to my life as I have pictures of those who I have lost. My dog, my grandparents, etc. by looking back to those photos, they serve as reminders of what I used to have, and a longing to remember them.

# data[].attributes.body
“They’d been a couple for two years… and now she had trouble meeting his eyes when they did A Midsummers Night’s Dream together” (Mandel 45).

In this passage we learn that Kirsten was in a relationship with Sayid, and must stay together to stay alive in this state of the world. This quote shows not “getting over your ex” but the necessity of working with one’s rivals. She has to do what she is not comfortable with to adapt an survive in this new world. This necessity to adapt and work with those we don’t like is relatable to my own life as in school, work, and sports, I am often required to work with others and many times they are with those I either disagree with or people who have a different level of effort as my own. Although I often prefer to work alone, I adapt to the situation and find common ground despite any tension that may be between us.

# data[].attributes.body
“It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It was gorgeous and claustrophobic. I loved it and I always wanted to escape” (Mandel 74).

This journey to find our own meaning and to move forward relates to my own desire to be out of state when I go to college. Although my issues with Minnesota and it’s lists of schools go far beyond the land it is on, I wish to got somewhere far away so I can find my own sense of what I find interesting or beautiful. This sense of adventure through Arthur also shows a desire for independence and experience and in my own life, by being as separate from my parents as possible, I can develop my own ideas free from influence in a far away land. This moment reveals Arthur’s desire to move on and find something new. His home on the small Delano Island is beautiful to him, but because it was all he knew and was surrounded by, it became unoriginal and inspired Arthur to move on and find his own sense of beauty, not what he was born with.

# data[].attributes.body
“The revelation of privacy… How the anonymity of city life feels like freedom” (Mandel 78 and 79).

In this passage, Miranda explains her joy of having new experiences and not being recognized and encountered by things or people familiar to her. This revelation of not being defined by those who are familiar with you relates to my own journey when I had to move to Minnesota in 4th grade. When I moved from one state to another, no one new who I was or knew anything about me, and I found freedom in the fact that no one could define me or judge me on what I had done in the past, only myself and the things I do now could define me.

# data[].attributes.body
“C.’s parents want him to go to business school or at least or at least get a practical degree of some kind and C. told me he’d rather die than do this” (Mandel 154).

In Arthur’s letter talking about his friend Clark, he describes this situation where Clark is being pressured into what his parents want for him. The sense of pressure from parents, pressure to be successful in school is prevalent in my own life. When beginning my search for the right collage to go to, my mom practically found or chose the collages I should look into. Although I do have an urge to attend college and go to the best school possible, I only started with her list of school and not my own. I also faced a similar pressure as I was inclined to be better than everyone else and go to a school that is highly rated and somewhere others I know couldn’t get into. My mom humbled me but also pressured me into thinking that it doesn’t matter what others do and Al I have to compete with is myself.

# data[].attributes.body
“You will never call me first. And I think that’s kind of a horrible thing, V., when you’re supposed to be someone’s friend. I always come to you. You always say your my friend but you’ll never come to me and I think I have to stop listening to your words” (Mandel 156).

In a conversation in the form of a letter to V., Arthur begins to take offense to V.’s lack of response to his letters. This dynamic of a one sided relationship is very relatable to my own life. For several of my friends, I will always make the effort to talk to them, ask to hang out, or involve them in what i’m doing. They usually accept, but never make the same effort in return. Like Arthur, I find this very hurtful as I’m putting myself out there to do something and this other person can’t do the same for me. In my mind and Arthur’s, it shows they don’t care and that I shouldn’t waste my time on those who don’t care about mine.

# data[].attributes.body
“They’re all immortal to me. First we only want to be seen, but once we’re seen, that’s not enough anymore. After that, we want to be remembered” (Mandel 187).

This theme of people wanting to be remembered, legacy and what we leave behind is relatable to not just my life but everyone’s. We all search to leave a mark on the world and to show our life had meaning. This is built through relationships, children, and our values we pass along to them.

# data[].attributes.body
“Frank standing on a stool on his wondrously functional pre-Libya legs, the bullet that would sever his spinal cord still twenty-five years away but already approaching: a women giving birth to a child who will someday pull the trigger on a gun… the pieces of a pattern drifting closer together” (Mandel 191).

Jeevan’s way of processing his brothers death by deconstructing it to the individual actions culminating to his death relates to my own style of thinking more rationally than emotionally. I have the tendency to over think like Jeevan in this scene and this style of thinking ends up having you take everything seriously and intentionally, sometimes being a downfall.

# data[].attributes.body
“The seascape bleeding into confused visions of Station Eleven” (Mandel, 228).

In this passage, I relate to Miranda’s way of daydreaming and using her memories to escape from the real world. In this particular scene where she is dying, Miranda is only thinking of her graphic novel series, the one aspect of her life that brought her independence and happiness. I personally have the same strategy of escaping bad scenes with positive memories to block out the bad. Whenever I am disappointed, scared, or angry, especially when I was younger, I would think about all of the people and things that bring me joy in order to find comfort.

# data[].attributes.body
“He has no expectation of seeing an airplane rise again in his lifetime, but is it possible that somewhere there are ships setting out? If there are again towns with streetlights, if there are symphonies and newspapers, then what else might this awakening world contain” (Mandel, 332-333).

In this passage, Clark is looking at an airplane, picturing and imagining it in the sky 20 years ago. Clark then goes on to think that if the planes aren’t working at Severn City Airport, they may be working someplace else. These long-shots of hope is not something I always carry, but something that the world needs more of and something I strive for. Like Clark being optimistic for the revival of his society and world, and I too strive to be as hopeful and optimistic with my school, work, sports and even more recently my college applications.