{"id":100,"date":"2017-09-07T12:28:20","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T17:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/?p=100"},"modified":"2017-09-07T13:57:34","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T18:57:34","slug":"the-best-thing-ive-ever-read-in-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2017\/09\/07\/the-best-thing-ive-ever-read-in-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Thing I&#8217;ve Ever Read in my Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/donmarquis.org\/themoth.htm\">This <\/a>is the only piece of work I have ever read that I will never forget. I based my hopes, my dreams, and my beliefs around it.\u00a0The first time I read it, I was in fifth grade. I was angry. I was angry, and I could not tell you or anyone else why, for I did not know. Happiness alluded me; I alluded it. I was angry, and I wanted everyone else to feel my rage with me. There was something wrong with life. It was an underdeveloped idea, something barely forming but not yet identified.<br \/>\nMy teacher read the poem out loud to the class, and my facial expressions softened, almost sore from the scowl I always adorned. It resonated deep within me, an echo that I can still hear.<\/p>\n<p>I immediately found myself drawn to the moth, and I ignorantly didn&#8217;t consider the cockroach as anything more than pitiful. When we took a poll to see who identified with the cockroach or moth, I was shocked. Almost twenty children chose to be the cockroach, while less than ten chose the moth. I was never so baffled in my entire life, nor do I think I ever will be again.<\/p>\n<p>When I read this poem, it was almost as if my entire life changed. It didn&#8217;t happen in a minute or even the day after, but after a week of mulling it over until it was naked without mystery, I gained my first real idea. I gained something that was my own, something that people didn&#8217;t agree with me on.\u00a0Most importantly, I didn&#8217;t believe it by someone else&#8217;s command. I finally had a voice.<\/p>\n<p>After reading this poem, I did not change immediately. I did not even change for three years afterwards, but rather cried myself to sleep wishing to be a moth. Then, the next morning, I would put on my cockroach costume, for it was easier.<\/p>\n<p>In ninth grade, I remembered it again. It was a random echo from deep, and I read it again. In that moment, I flipped as if a coin, deciding to finally shape my life around it. I changed everything I did, everything I loved, and everything I believed. People change, and this poem changed me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the only piece of work I have ever read that I will never forget. I based my hopes, my dreams, and my beliefs around it.\u00a0The first time I read it, I was in fifth grade. I was angry. I was angry, and I could not tell you or anyone else why, for I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2017\/09\/07\/the-best-thing-ive-ever-read-in-my-life\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Best Thing I&#8217;ve Ever Read in my Life&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}