I am reading a book.
One of my favorites, I found it time to refresh my memory on “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Best book in the world. I love going back and reading it again and again.
I could tell you about my first time encountering this book. I suppose I will.
When I was 15, my parents sent me to Utah. For over 7 weeks, I was in the wilderness with no touch of the indors in the mountains surviving in a “theraputic survival camp” called Second Nature. I have no idea to this day why they sent me there. I was woken up in the midle of the night, told to get in the car because we needed to go somewhere, and taken to an airport where I was sent off and still given no information about where I was going or what I was doing there. Imagine the terror of a kid that was being sent away without a reason. I was told I would only be gone for a couple weeks.
After the 7 weeks in Utah, hiking entire mountains and living off of cold beans and rice, I thought I was going home, that’s what I was told.
I was sent to a residential treatment center instead. A place called Island View Academy in Syracuse, Utah. The first night being there, I realized that I wasn’t going to be home or see any of my friends in a very long time. I was stuck in a lock down boarding school with security guards and therapists everywhere, still with no reason. The people around me did drugs, drank alcohol, were prostitutes and other generic rebelling teenager girls, and I was the one who had never donw any of that stuff.
So I sat in my bunk bed that night and cried and cried and cried. Why am I here? What did I do wrong to have my parents send me away? Why wouldn’t they tell me this was going to happen? Why dont they love me anymore?
A girl in the bunk across from mine heard me sniffling and asked what was wrong. When I told her my sob story, which was much like hers (97% of these girls were sent away on a plane without warning as well), she pulled out a book that was tucked under her pillow and handed it to me. Told me to read it.
I read “The Little Prince” from cover to cover that night. I made a new friend, and learned a lot. My stay at that treatment center went rather smoothly, as did my stay at the treatment center that followed it. The book did a lot for my heart. And I’ve read it several times since I was 15, each time it never ceases to amaze me.
My favorite book.
I am also going to get a tattoo in reference to my favorite quote from the book. I would like “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” written on the inside of my lower arm, text from my elbow to my wrist, so that I may remind myself of this true fact whenever I look down. (You should all give me money for this, hint hint hahaha.)
