A thank you and a couple questions

Hi again, I’m the fan who e-mailed u about “Fan needing help” on the Alice blog and I re-read the book Now I’ll tell you everything and even highlighted some parts at the end to read when I need to reassure myself that Patrick and Alice lived happily ever after. I’ve never loved a book so much before or the characters and Im slowly getting better, but how do I forget about penny and all of Patrick’s other girlfriends? Do all teens go through a faze like this where they’re obsessed with romance? And if so how do I get out of it and enjoy my last remaining year of being a teen? I also wanted to say thank you for being so patient and helping me.

It seems to me that you are looking at Alice and Patrick’s relationship as a guide to the way your own life might go, and that only a fairy tale romance will make you feel good about your future.  Patrick was very much interested in “exploring the world” and seeing things from different perspectives.  I feel much better about his love for Alice in that he allowed himself to meet and be involved with other girls and women first–than if he had dated only Alice in high school and married her shortly afterwards.   Having other relationships and traveling and living in other countries helped him see more clearly what had satisfied him most and who he missed, so that he was much more sure of himself and his love for Alice when they married. Alice on the other hand, was more insecure, having lost her mother early, but in the time Patrick was out of her life temporarily, it gave her the chance to meet other men and compare them to Patrick.   But these characters are all fiction, and you will be following your own road map–sometimes you will feel like Alice, but many of your experiences will be unique and belong only to you.  Look forward to life, and don’t let bumps along the way scare you.