Dive: The Life and Fight of Reba Tutt

Title: Dive: The Life and Fight of Reba Tutt
Author: Hannah Safren
Publisher: Write Bloody Publishing
Date Published: April 12, 2013
Rating: ★★★

Synopsis:

The empowering story of one female athlete's incredible discovery of what it means to truly feel alive. Based on Reba Tutt's heart-wrenching life and fight, Dive details the painful, yet empowering process of healing. The murder of Reba's older sister, Ari, fuels painful flashbacks and unstitches eight years of Reba's healing. With just two months to go before graduation, Reba is consumed by the past, lost in the present and hesitant for the future. With the support of her boyfriend, Pittsburgh basketball player Ronald Ramon, the guidance of her father, and the need to keep her final promise to her mother, Reba learns what it means to accept and persevere through life's many challenges.

Review:

I couldn't see the main problem here. Well, yes I know Reba Tutt was trying to move one, but that was just it. I remember couple days ago my lecture said that the main character can't build the story by itself, supporting characters are important. But in this story, the supporting characters had nothing to do with the main topic. So the story is just all about Reba Tutt. In each chapter, Reba brought out a piece of her journals. This is what I like the most, the journal! There are so many inspirating words on them. If you feel like your life is meaningless or you're almost give up of this world, try to read this book :) It might encourage you, somehow. I personally don't really like the story, but I like its mesaages. Here are some of favorite messages:

"Surviving is simple. It's nothing more than breathing, moving, eating, and sleeping. Living, however, requires far more than just being alive; it requires feeling alive. It requires a sense of fearlessnes and an urge to grow- not just because the days pass, but for a reason, for a purpose." (Chapter 13)

"I am certain that failure is not worthy of our fear and for that matter, our fears are not worthy to be the cause of our failures." (Chapter 14)

"We need dreams and we need hope...  to show us where we want to go, to remind us that we can get there." (Chapter 16)

"I believe in God. He only lets things like this happen to people who can handle it." (Chapter 20)

Excerpt:

22, April. We are all tangled in it.

No, we cannot untie ourselves. However, we will spend our entire lives trying, constantly seeking the escape, the loopholes, the ways to unravel this immaculate design. Knowing that it is not possible.

We give our hearts to family, friends, strangers- allowing only a few to tie into our memories, holding on to each of them with calloused grips. and as for the ones that let go.

They fall into someone new, as do we. We blend stories of our travels, weave our hometowns into farmlands, big cities, different countries... always marking up roadmaps, always searching for a better paradise. Most will discover it along the way. Few will ever notice.

We climb high rises, walk tightropes, wear chains that weigh down our already heavy shoulders, all with the brave intent to part ways, to untie ourselves, to cut the cord. But the design is messy, and we are all tangled in it.

Sure, we can loosen our grips, fly a thousand miles in another direction, but we cannot promise that we will never see each other again, nor promise that we will. We cannot tell each other that there are no strings attached. There are always strings attached. We are all strings.

The knots dragging behind each of us carry our baggage. They slow us down. They weaken our posture, but we are strong. We keep moving. We push on. We push on. We push on.

And I may not even know your name, not one thing about you, but you are in all of my history and I am in yours. And one day, maybe our strings will intertwine; one day maybe they won't. But know that it is us tying this whole world together. Know that we are tangled in this together.