libros, citas y cartas / books, quotes, and letters

Melu

This past week we had another amazing program planned by BBYOer in Argentina Melu Faez (pictured right). Its so much better if you here from her about what she did:

When I was told I could do an activity about whatever it was that I wanted, I decided I would do it about something I really really loved, and so I chose to do it about books. I really felt the need to tell them (my fellow teens) how important books were to me, and encourage them to read more (or start reading if they didn't).

It was kind of a challenge because the first thing most of the people think when someone says books is "boring", but I went on and kept it as a surprise for as long as the first part of the activity had gone by.


First I put different quotes from my favorite books on the floor, and made the teens choose one that they could relate to their own lives, or just a quote they liked. Then, I asked each one to tell us which quote they had chosen and why. The answers were exactly what I wanted them to be. Some girls talked about how they related they felt to a quote that talked about controlling everything, and then went on telling us what they felt. Then there was this one quote that made us get into a discussion about how empty some conversations were, and there were a lot of agreements and disagreements about the quote and what we were saying; I found it amazing.

When everyone finished saying what they had to say, I told them that all of these were quotes from books, and that I chose them because I knew they would relate to at least one. And that's exactly how I feel about books. There will always be a book for you. You may not find yourself in just one book but feel identified with different little parts of different books, but even if that's not the case, I feel books can truly fulfill you and make you grow up, feeding your imagination and making you think.

I sadly believe books are getting more underestimated every single day and I don't want it to happen because I'm convinced there is magic among books. And that's the message I wanted to send.

Then I started to hand out letters from different teens from BBYO U.S. and one from Switzerland (some of the letters actually came in the mail like old-fashioned letters). In the letters, teens recommended their favorite book to the teens here.

It was amazing to see how excited they were about the letters, talking about the teens they met at IC (BBYO's International Convention) and telling the others how awesome they were.

As soon as I got home and opened Facebook, I saw that one of the girls posted in our Facebook group that she was inspired by my activity and wanted all of us to make a list of our favorite books in order to recommend each other different books to read. We're also talking about doing an exchange of books between ourselves. So with this, I can say that I reached my goals and I'm really glad I did it.

Melu Faez, 17

I love how Melu took a topic she loved and turned it into a program that allowed for discussion, reflection, and connections with others around the world. Great job Melu!