Blog #2

Solace

In I Was Once Miss America Gay reveals how influential books were to her life which is a sentiment I can understand and relate to. The Sweet Valley High books offered her an escape from her life into another world where she could be the popular kid everyone loved in school. This is very relatable because very much like Gay I was a bookworm in school (and still am) and was always spotted with a book. I can understand her love for the Sweet Valley books and how even years later the nostalgia that the books brought forward. When I was younger I read the Twilight series which I love and even years later I can still read those books and go back to the time I first read those words and relive all those emotions again. Gay says that books are often far more than just books, which is true for many people that look at reading as an outlet. Even though her high school experience was opposite to my experience in some ways it was very much the same. In high school I never had to experience the feeling of being left out or ridiculed as I was much like the Wakefield twins and was a popular cheerleader. But on a deeper level I can relate as I was one of the few African American kids in my high school. Because no matter how good of a cheerleader I was or how popular I was I couldn’t totally connect with my peers and even had the title of the token black friend in many circles. Gay reveals what many kids feel while growing up and her coping mechanism that many can relate to in one way or another.