Shining me, precious soul of mine

I finally realized so I love me

Not so perfect but so beautiful

I'm the one I should love"

These lyrics really spoke to me, as in a world where social media depicts the societal standards of beauty, this song speaks to advocate for self love. Self love is one of the most important things that many in our world must work to find with all the pressures of society. Self love only leads to your own happiness, and once you've found peace in yourself as a person that is the biggest achievement. This song reminds me that so long as I'm comfortable in my own skin, that's all I need.

Days fade into a watercolour blur
Memories swim and haunt you
But look into the lake, shimmering like smoke
Rises the moon"

This song talks about those days where your determination grows weak and you feel as if you can't escape the endless cycle of helplessness. Similarly, I had my own moments where I couldn't find the determination to dedicate myself to my school work and had just felt burned out, but just as the song says "rises the moon," you have to persevere even if what you put forward is not your best effort is still something, which is definitely better than nothing.

-things the moon taught me"

P. 34

Silence and the moon are two things I love. It was a different type of peace when I'd look out at the moon in the dead of night, staring at where it hung in the dark sky while the entire house was asleep. My mind quiet as I stand there in that moment, no wandeirng thoughts, just me and the moon. Ironically, something like the moon can be so grounding. It's not bright and loud like the sun but just bright enough to still offer light as it watches over the world. I'm grateful for the silence the moon offers, it allows me moments to myself, ones where I never once felt an ounce of loneliness, just peace.

"Maybe there had once been a time when everyone knew magic existed, and certainly there was a time when people feared and persecuted those who had it,..." P. 39

Dolph's suffering as he watches the person he loves gruesomely have the very thing that defines her ripped away because she was born as who she was evoked my deep sympathy. I couldn't help but notice the parallels to real-world events such as the genocide commited on Indigenous people in western countries, including Canada. Just the same as the magicians in the novel who were hunted and murdered, Indigenous people were assimilated, Indigenous children ripped away from their families with the intention to "kill the indian in the child." These people had done nothing wrong and yet were being murdered just for existing (applicable to both the novel and our world). Even until now with genocides still occur across the world because of western countries, but just as they had deemed the magicians dangerous in the novel, they call Indigenous people savages or terrorists, dehumanizing them to the public eyes so no one questions why they are exterminating innocent people. This connection to the real-world evokes a stronger sense of emotion from the reader as it's something so similar to our reality.

In the future I continue to hold the same goal and hope to read more books as well as broaden my horizons to different genres, such as non-fiction, self-help books, contemporary literature, and etc., as I tend to gravitate towards fictional and poetical writing.