be more like Anne of Green Gables

This goal has been on my list since the first few days I found 43things and created an account. Truthfully, I really wanted to let other people know how much the Anne books meant to me. Truthfully, it is really difficult for me to think now about calling it complete and closing it out. But truthfully, all good things must come to and end and we have to move on…
I just finished rereading Anne of Green Gables last night, crying over Matthew’s death, crying over Anne’s brave face in her decisions…just crying.
Sometimes, I wondered what this goal really meant and I think that’s why I never really paid any attention to it after I created it. But after finishing the book again last night, I know. I already was so much like Anne: she was always learning and, like me, unsure one minute and stubborn as a mule the next. I found so many similarities in Anne’s life and my own, especially at this point. Anne made difficult decisions, taking into consideration not just her own needs and her own life but those of the ones she loved. She faced deep sadness that can’t be understood except by those closest to it and then in the end, as we all must do, she came out still optimistic. She grew more physically beautiful throughout the book but more importantly, she grew more beautiful inside. She was ambitious, creative, humble and loving. She saw the beauty in everything.

I didn’t discover Anne until relatively late but once I did, I was fully obsessed. My friend and I would were on the outs with another girl in junior high and whatever she did, we made fun of…even reading the Anne books. But once we discovered Anne for ourselves (I think I watched the PBS shows and then decided I needed to read all the books), we quietly swept those past transgressions under the carpet and took up our own obsession. I have auburn hair so I could serve as a fair Anne and Robin had brown hair so she was always Diana. I absolutely fell in love with the PBS programs-my heart still aches for it sometimes-but the books really bring back the era in which Anne lived. I’ve only read them all once through but it is high on my list to do again. I just love her simplicity but also her kindness and goodness, her quiet wisdom (as she grows up). Someone once mentioned that she wished her college experience had been like Anne’s and I cheered that. Yes! She lived in a house with all her friends and studied and had fun—I wish my college experience had been more like that too. My roommates were not really my kindred spirits and too often, we lose sight of our original goal which is to learn, not for a degree or a job but for ourselves. Anne was lucky and loved b/c she was simply herself, something I have trouble doing. But the joy of Anne was watching her come to it through the span of the 8 books. Hmmm… maybe I should set my sights in real life!