Mia had lost everything. So why should she stay? Why should she continue to fight for her life if her family was dead and all she had left was pain? "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman shows readers that even when everything seems lost there is always something to fight for.

         Sometimes pain can feel overwhelming. Mia was emotionally in pain and she wasn't sure if she should continue to fight for her life. However, although she was in a lot of pain and wasn't sure if she wanted to live she still did argue with herself about it which shows that there was some part of her that did want to stay, and in the end she did. Her love for Adam ( her boyfriend) gave her something to fight for. She overcame her pain.

         There is always something or someone to fight for. In the story, Mia was "running the show" She decided if she got better or not. So when she was emotionally in pain she would physically worsen. When she found out that her brother had not survived the car cash, her physical self became unstable and needed surgery. However even with all this pain she was feeling she still survived. In the end, she used all her emotion and strength to come back and hold Adam's hand. She had decided to stay. She had found something to fight for.

         Overall, "If I Stay" teaches readers that even when everything seems lost, there is always something to fight for. Mia had lost her family and was overwhelmed but in the end she saw what she still had and fought to stay. It might not be obvious at first but there is always something or someone worth fighting for.

Speaking Up

Imagine being hurt but never telling anyone, and the guy was at your school ready to do it to someone else. That’s how it was like to Melinda in “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson. Melinda tried to pretend that everything was normal, that she never got raped, but “IT” was always there. She was hopping that things would change and get better but, teens can’t expect changes for the better if they don’t do something about it.

Keeping a secret, secret, can be hard on teens. Melinda’s secret was overwhelming her. Every time she saw “IT” (the guy who raped her) she was paralyzed with fear and she couldn’t do anything because she was to terrified to speak up.. Her secret isolated her from other people. She had no friends and people thought she was weird. This shows that it is important to speak up. To speak up, you free yourself from what’s keeping you miserable.

Speaking up can allow you to be free from fear and guilt if something happened to you. If you don’t, it could keep you from enjoying life like it did to Melinda, who lived being terrified all the time and lived isolated from the rest of the world. She felt guilty because she was drunk when she got raped but she did say no. She thought it was her fault but it wasn’t and she couldn't tell anyone because she wouldn't speak up.Speaking up could help you live freely.

Overall, “Speak” teaches readers that in order for things to change for the better, you need to do something. Not just wait around hoping for the best. “My stomach is killing me. The room isn’t big enough for this much emotion” Melinda had too much emotion buried inside her because she wouldn’t speak up. She had noone to tell how she was feeling. Readers can prevent from feeling like this by doing something like speaking up or fighting back for the change they need.