Along for the Ride 3

            I am still reading the book “Along for the Ride” by Sarah Dessen which is about a girl named Auden who moves in with her dad and step mother over the summer. Over the course of the book Auden changes dramatically.

           

In the beginning of the book Auden was just like her parents. She studied all the time and she help all of her emotions about her parents’ divorce and getting stood up at prom and missing out on a childhood. Auden was always judgmental of people who weren’t serious and focused on academics all the time, just like her mother. She always thought of her stepmother as a shallow, “soulless Barbie doll” because that’s what her mother taught her to believe. Auden also didn’t make any friends because she said that she “didn’t belong in girl world” so she steered clear of a social life and put all her energy in to being valedictorian, she as her mother wanted. I think its bad for a person to just follow in their parents’ footsteps and never venture out and have their own life and own opinions once in a while. I think Auden learned that lesson when she moved to Colby for the summer.

           

In Colby, Auden saw who her stepmother really was, which I think was the most important step for Auden to she who she really was. She saw that Heidi wasn’t “a soulless Barbie doll” but a strong intelligent woman who cared about the people she loved and would do whatever it takes to keep them healthy and happy. Heidi and Auden’s dad just had a baby. Auden’s dad said that since he was a writer he needed his nine hours of sleep so he basically never helped with the baby and left the exhausted Heidi to do all the work. This let Auden see how strong Heidi and how much of a jerk her father was. Auden also saw how much her mother was weighing her down and making her miserable. This helped Auden free herself from the hold her parents had on her. She also met Maggie, Leah and Esther. At first she thought they were shallow, unintelligent girls who only wore pink (just the kind of girls that her mother would disapprove of) but she hung out with them and found that they were nice, accepting and smart girls, and she became friends with them, something she wasn’t planning on doing during her trip. All of these changes let Auden break out of her shell. She stood up to her father and bonded with her stepmother and finally started to talk to her mother about her opinions and the way she wanted her life to turn out, and not to just follow in her mother’s footsteps.

           

Auden’s trip to Colby was really beneficial to her. She broke out of her anti-social shell and finally started to show her true colors, which was really important for her. A person can go mad if they never say what needs to be said.

           

I am almost done with “Along for the Ride” by Sarah Dessen and I have found that Auden’s move to Colby for the summer was really transitional for her and is going to help her now and later in life.