When I decided I wanted to be a journalist, I always imagined that my byline would grace pages of magazines like the ones my aunt kept around the house. I remember losing myself in the stories and dreaming that one day I would be the one chasing down similar stories. But, it seemed like nothing more than a dream so by the time I started college, I didn’t really know which path to take. I knew I wanted to write, but that was it.
Then, I entered my core classes and during that time, Brittany Spears was going through something and that’s what we talked about. I remember daydreaming because I wasn’t interested in learning about her or her personal situation in class. To me, we should have been talking about something else that can be found in the text books I bought. At the time, it didn’t seem like the news I wanted to do. I wanted to make a difference and for a while, I considered being a foreign correspondent.
In my head, it would give me the opportunity to travel and see the world and I would still be able to write. Then reality set in and it seemed like the only time I saw one was in times of war and I am a punk so that was a big NO NO.
Reading “A House in the Sky” was a reminder of those dreams to travel and see the world. Amanda’s story jumped off the pages as she talked about her travels through South America, the Middle East and Africa. For a moment, I was living that dream and I was there with her for every trek she took from her Canadian home to a different foreign land and I loved it.
It is the story of a brave young woman who challenges herself to learn more about the world and herself with each trip she takes. During her travels, she meets several people who becomes her interpreters, her voice of reason and her friends. It is through a friend that she learned about freelancing, which would give her the opportunity to not only travel, but get paid for it. Her jobs led her far and wide including war-ridden Somalia where she and her entourage was captured by a group of Somali boys. She was held hostage for 460 days.
What I loved most about the book besides the very well-written stories, was the hope that jumped off of each page. Even in the roughest of times, Amanda remained more optimistic and hopeful than I think I ever would. She believed that everything would be okay and I admired that quality. But there were times when things were absolutely not okay and my heart went out to her and it broke for her each and every time.
Amanda’s story is the embodiment of what it means to have faith and to be strong. She proved what it truly means to forgive someone despite all of their wrong doing, which I think is such a rare yet beautiful quality.
