I thought of writing this post after I finished reading "Paper Towns" by John Green. It was one fantastic book, the more you flip the pages and go to the ending, the more intriguing it becomes. At first I had no idea what Paper Town really means, but then as the story goes on the idea unraveled bit by bit. I adore John Green in a way that his way of thinking, his ideas, the plot he made, the metaphors and the quotes you can found inside the book is simply... mind blowing yet make sense at the same time. Then I crossed upon this quote, phrase, metaphors, whatever you named it —which got me thinking and having some nostalgia and agreeing —that I guess also concluding the whole book.

"Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will... But then again, if you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all. Imagining isn't perfect. You can't get all the way inside someone else... But imagining being someone else, or the world being something else, is the only way in."

The thing is, sometimes we tend to imagine what will happen next. Either imagining the best of people or imagining that something would make you happy. Or imagining the worst thing that could happen. We imagine surprises during birthday, expression of love during valentine, certain action from people. We imagine people might embarrassed us when we are nervous, how a certain roller coaster could make you sick. And what happen usually is either better or worse, never exactly like you imagine it will, unless you got a sixth sense.

But imagination is needed. Sometimes, in order to understand someone, you have to imagine being in their shoes. Imagine what would they feel, what would they do, how would they respond. And not only people, sometimes, imagining the world being something else, is what motivates you to survive this life, or change for the better.



-Caroline Ongkowijoyo