Brain Maps...

In the book I chose, "It's kind of a funny story" Craig Gilner is a teenager who is facing depression. Throughout the book he tells stories of his depression, anxiety, and stress. Craig talks about a memory of himself when he was younger. Craig was trying to retrace a picture of Manhattan, where he lives. He became extremely frustrated when he couldn't do it. After many attempts and still not succeeding his Mom noticed his aggravation. She made him realize that without special equipment it is almost impossible to do well. On page 26, Craig's Mom says, " Craig, I have an idea, instead of spending your time trying to trace maps of Manhattan, why don't you make your own maps of imaginary places?" Craig says that that moment was the closest he ever came to an epiphany. Then on page 27, Craig says " I made cities. That made me happy. That was my anchor... that was what I wanted to be when I grew up: a mapmaker." I think the city has a huge impact on Craig, especially in this moment. He was able to figure out something about his future, which is extremely hard for him to do now. After he started to get serious abut school he didn't really do maps anymore, or anything fun to him. Until the age of 15 when he emitted himself into the hospital because he was going to kill himself. He was sentenced to 5 days in the hospital to get better. During those 5 days he made many memorable friends like Jimmy, Ebony, President Armelio, Humble, Jennifer/Charles, his room mate Muqtada, Johnny, Bobby, and his lover Noelle. During one of their mandatory activities, everyone had to draw anything they wanted. However, Craig had an "artists block" and couldn't think of anything to draw. Then Noelle, his almost girlfriend, suggested something from his childhood and Craig instantly began to draw. It came pouring out onto the paper, his maps. When Craig was almost finished drawing, his art drew a crowd. People were complementing him and Ebony asked if they were pictures of brains and Craig responded yes. Before Craig left the hospital, he made anyone who wanted one a brain map. He was told over and over again that he should consider selling his art and become an artist. It made sense for his future. It was a simple task that he enjoyed. And it made him realize he wanted to switch to an art school instead of staying under the pressure of Executive Pre-Professional High School. After his 5 days spent in the hospital Craig looked at the world in a new way. On page 443 Craig says " Jeez, why was I trying to kill myself?" If Craig didn't experience the city at such a young age, he wouldn't have never fell in love with making maps. Which would have never led to his new way of seeing life. In my opinion, if the city never affected Craig in such a strong way, he probably would've gotten sucked back into the real world stress of Executive Pre-Professional High School and probably would've killed himself. Do you guys think that this affected Craig greatly? Does anyone agree that he might have ended up committing suicide if he never found out his true passion, art, in life?

                                                   ( The picture Craig drew for Noelle.)