{"id":3791,"date":"2018-08-14T09:03:47","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T16:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideout.insidewp.test\/?p=3791"},"modified":"2018-08-14T09:03:47","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T16:03:47","slug":"whoever-i-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/2018\/08\/14\/whoever-i-want\/","title":{"rendered":"WHOEVER I WANT: THIS I BELIEVE SUMMER SERIES #8"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"color: #00bcd3\">BY MARIA VAN WOERDEN<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #00bcd3\">Unwritten Expectations<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019ve learned that the pressure of this world is too strong. Going into high school brought on too many expectations that I couldn\u2019t meet. With all these pressures, I was feeling trapped and I needed a way to escape.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #266092\"><strong>That\u2019s when I really found my passion for books.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Teresa Mummert once wrote,\u201c<em>Reading was my only escape from reality. Through books, I could be whoever I wanted.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0This quote began to ring true in my life; I started to find it a relief to spend time in a world that wasn\u2019t my own. I began to feel this reassuring peace that swept over me every time I entered a book.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #00bcd3\"><strong>Taking Hold<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s as if everything around me gets put on pause while I <span style=\"color: #266092\"><strong>get lost among the words<\/strong><\/span> within each chapter. Especially in my first years of high school, there were constantly negative things going on around me, so to help me get a better grasp on life, I began to read which helped me block out the reality around me.<\/p>\n<p>I believe fiction goes much <span style=\"color: #266092\"><strong>deeper than just ink on paper.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Certain stories help me discover who I am and to find friendship while in dark places.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve experienced adventures others haven\u2019t through the Harry Potter series and while reading the entire Mortal Instruments series, I learned more about the meaning of sacrifice and loss. Although it seems unexpected, the Hunger Games taught me to stand up for what is right and to seek justice in the world around me.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #00bcd3\"><strong>Out of This World <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>All these books have created in me a yearning for a deeper knowledge. They help me to define who I am and guide me with who I want to be. I believe reading <span style=\"color: #266092\"><strong>a book has the ability to change me<\/strong><\/span>; change how I think, what I say and how I act.<\/p>\n<p>At times reading is better than the life I am living in, so it gives me a break as I <span style=\"color: #266092\"><strong>escape the world I am so often trapped in.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Within a book I can be whoever I want, and I can go wherever I chose. Books have helped me find my true self at the darkest of times. I believe within every book I can live in a world that helps me <span style=\"color: #266092\"><strong>escape the troubling reality from this all too surreal society. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY MARIA VAN WOERDEN Unwritten Expectations I\u2019ve learned that the pressure of this world is too strong. Going into high school brought on too many expectations that I couldn\u2019t meet. With all these pressures, I was feeling trapped and I needed a way to escape. That\u2019s when I really found my passion for books. Teresa <a href=\"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/2018\/08\/14\/whoever-i-want\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":3820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-3791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summer-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3791"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=3791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}