The Power of Love

Dear Rainbow Rowell,

When I reached adolescence, I inhaled the young adult genre at my local library. Teen books told stories of real life situations that I could now experience, the most intriguing being romantic relationships. I’ve never felt that I was especially good looking or special, and every example of people falling in love in the media was between two above average looking people. Being bullied early in life because of my weight cemented this idea in my head; being wanted was something I hoped for but never expected to actually happen, and this was just the way real life works. In the pages of a fiction novel, however, I could experience the things that would never happen to me in reality, over and over again as I read more and more. The idea that love wasn’t just a complicated and amazing phenomenon for adults appealed to me. I quickly found that fantasy and dystopian love stories didn’t resonate with me. Love is one of the greatest parts of living in reality, and otherworldly settings distracted from that. I loved the stories where I could superimpose myself into the character’s life, feel the ups and downs of romance and land at a happy ending. As a freshman in high school, I was ready to move on from the superficial and extremely short-lived ‘relationships’ of middle school and enter the big leagues where people could express genuine feelings for each other and not be scrutinized by such a juvenile audience. After a semester with no realistic romantic possibilities and a dwindling sense of hope, I returned to the love stories that never failed me. In a search for something new, I was lucky enough to find your book that would not only take me on a journey, but change the way I perceived romance from then on.

Eleanor and Park was the first romance novel with characters in my age group that felt real and was free of typical teenage romance cliches. Their story built into a love that transcended their circumstances, though their ending broke my heart. While I was fortunate enough to be raised and live in a family the complete opposite from Eleanor’s and not face the identity woes that Park does, I could put myself in their perspectives as if it was happening to me, as well as observe them as though I was in the school bus seat across the aisle from theirs. I could feel the crane of my neck while reading as though constantly glancing across the aisle at them sharing comic books. I gasped to myself the first time they held hands like I would as if witnessing a friend reach that same milestone. Both of them tried to fight the feelings they had for each other at first because everyone around them and every social rule told them it was wrong, but love broke those barriers. This story showed me that love is powerful and comes when you least expect it, or even if you don’t expect it at all. It brings you to the person you’re meant to learn from and grow with. The reality of love is not picture-perfect. It isn’t only granted to those that look or act a certain way, to the contrary of what the popular people want you to believe or what movies want to sell you a ticket to. Love comes at any age, to any race and ethnicity, to any tax bracket. It makes us feel alive, feel together, sometimes feel alone, feel greater than the sum of our parts.

I’ve always heard the expression that love is blind, and I didn’t understand that until I read Eleanor and Park. Love did not skip over them because of Eleanor’s tattered clothes and wild hair, or because of Park’s music taste and eyeliner. Love saw, or didn’t see, them for their physicality but for their souls. Love and life brought them together that on that fateful full school bus and took them on a journey together that not only touched both of them but myself and thousands of other readers. Rainbow, I would like to extend a sincere thank you. Now I know that someone will take genuine interest in me, will want to know my thoughts and opinions, and most importantly, will appreciate me not just for what I can offer them, but how we can help each other become the best, most free versions of ourselves. Like Park knew Eleanor after holding her hand, I know I will always hold on to the lessons these two taught me.

With appreciation,

Erica