The Teenage Tunnel

What most excites me about reading Teen Ink is that I don’t have to read in a certain order. There are no rules for reading this book, and no one can judge me if I decide to read more stories from a certain topic. I wish life was like this but as I live through my teenage years I find myself stuck in a tunnel with no light and certainly, no exit.  To my comfort, I know I’m not the only one in the tunnel. As I read five different stories and poems from Teen Ink, I learn about things that have occurred to other teens from all over the world. Some stories I didn’t relate to but there was one I found very familiar.

Lisa Gauches lost her best friend, Tyler. Their relationship was “one of those situations where you know the other person better than you know yourself” (2). For as long as Lisa could remember, Tyler had been sick. It wasn’t until she started “watching him grow thinner and thinner that her positive feelings turned into a façade and she worried all the time” (3). In the end, Lisa talks about how tough it was to lose Tyler when they were only seventeen-years old.

As I read Lisa’s story, I thought how my Tyler was called Mariana. We weren’t best friends but we were very close since we had known each other from way back. Unlike Lisa with Tyler, I didn’t know Mariana would die. A terrible accident happened to her and I didn’t have time to say goodbye. This catastrophe was only in my first year of being a teenager but it still marked me forever.

So far, the different stories in Teen Ink have been very interesting and meaningful. In our teenage years, we make a collection of memories and stories that in the end help us get to the end of the tunnel. I’m glad John and Stephanie H. Meyer decided to put together some stories and make this book. 

Vocabulary:

Cystic Fibrosis- a common hereditary disease that appears in early childhood, involving generalized disorder of the exocrine glands, and a deficiency of pancreatic enzymes