You is smart. You is kind. You is important.

I feel like in a way I've purposely waited this long to write a post about the movie and the book, The Help.

Straight from the back of the book...
Aibileen Clark is a black made in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, raising her seventeenth white child. She's always taken orders quiely, but lately it leaves her with a bitterness she can no longer bite back. Her friend Minny Jackson has certainly never held her toungue, or held on to a job very long, but now she's working for a newcomer with secrets that leave her speechless. And white socialite Skeeter Phelan has just returned from college with ambition and a degree but, to her mother's lament, no husband. Normally Skeeter would find solance in Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, but Constantine has inexplicably disappeared.

Together, these seemingly different women join to work on a project that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town-- to write, in secret, a tell-all book about what it's really like to work as a black maid in the white homes of the South. Despite the terrible risks they will have to take, and the sometimes humorous boundaries they will have to cross, these three women unite with one intention: hope for a better day.

I'm not writing this to critique the book and the movie, because I can say nothing but excellent things about both the book and the movie. I love movies and despite being a journalism major, I haven't honestly wanted to pick up a book and steadily read since probably middle school. I am obsessed with The Help. Saturday (aka yesterday) if I wasn't sleeping, I was reading. If I hadn't of stopped to take a nap earlier in the night or to write this post I'd probably be even closer to finishing. I'm on page 377 of 522 as I peck this out on my laptop.

The Help has made me sit back and think, really think, about life.

It says a lot of about a book when while reading it you find yourself saying, "I got it easy." Just thinking about the stupid things I've bitched about in my measly 22 years of life on God's green earth and then reading about the fear, etc these people lived through just decades ago makes me a little nauseous. How can I complain I don't have enough clothes when these ladies wore the same outfit or two to work everyday and took their white boss's hand-me-downs. It just makes you think sometimes, "Man, I'm a brat."

Aibileen should be the kind of character people strive to be. Not the maid part, but the kind and caring soul that she is. I feel like it says a lot of about someone that can raise seventeen white babies and love them as if they were your own. Aibie (as little Mae Mobley calls her) really tries her best to see the good in people and tries to be kind to everyone. That, sometimes, can be a hard trait to maintain. I love Minny because she reminds me of myself. Kind of short tempered sometimes and always willing to speak her mind, usually getting her own rear end in trouble. Minny has a hard exterior but deep down, she's just a soft soul. Skeeter Phelan and I have something in common besides both being tall, we want to be journalists. I admire her character.

After reading over 100 pages today and thinking about my life as I read, I have to come to see that my life really isn't so bad. As I sit here, in my bed, at 1:23am I am content where I am in life. I've spent an entire day dreading my phone beeping with a text, dreading my phone ringing. I've enjoyed just reading and thinking. I'm a good thinker, whether I think about worthwhile things or not. My biggest life obstacle is always finding happiness and finding happiness isn't going to come from who texts me today or calls me tomorrow. It isn't going to come from who I hang out with this weekend. It comes from my heart. It comes from me being absolutely content with being myself. That's one thing I learned from Skeeter, be yourself. I don't care about who texts or doesn't anymore. Those few people, mainly I mean guys, that text or call me only bring me drama and stress. I don't need all that. The social aspect of life isn't what necessarily has to bring you happiness. You can't let your happiness depend on others around you.

I've taken a little piece of everyone from this book-- Aibileen, Minny, Skeeter, Celia Foote, Hilly, Elizabeth-- all of them. Each character taught me a little bit.

If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, it's a must.