30 Things #29: Start and finish a classic book I've never read

It's that time of the month when I realize that almost the whole month has gone by and I haven't posted a thing!

Jane Eyre would never do that. Jane was principled. Jane was structured and disciplined. She was not a procrastinator. She's the kind of girl you would want running your household and teaching your children because she knows what she's doing and doesn't let silly emotions get in the way.

Pretty sure I started in April on a pretty day

I had many books to chose from for this bucket list item. I used to love love to get lost in a good book...but since grad school reading has still become somewhat of a chore more than a source of relaxation. And with social media and TV, reading is almost a discipline I have to practice, not to mention many of the books I've read of late have been of "lesser literary quality."

Thus the caveat that I read a CLASSIC book.

But WOW are a lot of classic books dark and depressing. I recalled seeing the old movie version of Jane Eyre a while ago and thinking that it was just like the others. Sad. Dark. Depressing. BUT. People. The book is better than the movie!! (That has never been said before) AND, it took most of the summer (on and off picking it up) and into the fall because I just wasn't super consistent, but I actually finished this book in October!

That being said, this post should really read: 

30 Things #29: Lessons from Jane (especially since she was a school teacher ha)

Lesson 1: Principles and discipline can be beautiful. People live that way for a reason.

Lesson 2: Emotions will get to even the most principled people and turn them upside-down.

"When once more alone, I reviewed the information I had got, looked into my heart, examined its thoughts and feelings, and endeavored to bring back with a strict hand such as had been straying through imagination's boundless and trackless waste, into the safe fold of common sense." 

Translation: I like a boy and I can't make it stop. My heart won't listen to my head.

Lesson 3: We were made to love and be loved, even the most seemingly stony heart.

Lesson 4: Watch out for crazy people in attics.

Lesson 5: Make sure that the person you love and marry is not also secretly married to said crazy person in attic.

Lesson 6: As much as you try to turn off emotion, the heart wants what it wants.
(Cue Selena Gomez in the background.)

Lesson 7: It pays to know French/another language (Literally, cash money).

Lesson 8: Heart break is THE WORST. And girls are so emotional.

"Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt! May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heart-wrung tears as poured from mine. May you never appeal to Heaven in prayers so hopeless and so agonized as in that hour left my lips; for never may you, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to hat you wholly love."

Poor Jane. So deeply sad and so well spoken.

Lesson 9: I don't think I would want to live in England. It sounds so dreary and gray. Unless I had a sun lamp thing and vitamins B and D to take in mass.

Lesson 10: Love + real flawed people = imperfection and moments of deep happiness

Lesson 11: Just because the missionary dude looks good on paper does not make him the right one. You gotta feel it too. (Jane, you are so very smart. And way to learn! You learned to use principle PLUS your emotion. Your counselor would have been proud.)

Lesson 12: Even the people or stories that may appear sad or dark on the outside...when you can hear the inner dialogue and the true heart of the person...there is much more than meets the eye. And it might just be worth knowing.

Lesson 13: One of the things that I think makes a book a classic is the beauty with which it is written. And Jane Eyre, my friend, is a beautifully written book. It was worth reading for this fact alone.

And finally,

Lesson 14: If there is hope for a girl like Jane to find love, there is hope for me.

I agree Jane, except when it comes to sitting on the beach reading about your life. I enjoyed getting to know you. Thanks for helping me with #29. You were quite worth it.