They Both Die at the End Discussion Part One

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay about writing this post. I’ve had a busier week than I thought I would have. But I’m back!

In this discussion, we are only talking about the first part, so if you have read more, please refrain from mentioning it to avoid spoiling the book for others. Thank you! If you haven’t finished Part One, just know that there will be spoilers ahead!

Welcome to our first discussion of our Book Club! This month my pick is They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.

I have originally got this book in a little while ago. I also bought this book for my friend’s birthday, and I had waited for him to catch up in reading this book. I had put the book down, while waiting for him to be on the same page as me. I had to restart from the beginning just in case I had missed something, but I also needed a refresher of the book to confidently talk about it with you.

Part One of the book introduces the concept about Death-Cast, and how they end up calling Mateo and Rufus (the two main characters in the book) to warn them that some time in the next twenty four hours their life will end. It is a reminder that they need to make today count, since it is their last day.

We learn that Mateo’s dad has been in a coma for the past two weeks. Rufus’ parents and sister died in a car accident when their car tumbled into the Hudson River. Since the accident Rufus has ended up in foster care. Before Rufus received his call from Death Cast, he is beating his ex girlfriend’s boyfriend. He then makes a vow to myself that he will die being a nice person. He decides to throw himself a funeral so his friends can honour and remember his life. But his funeral is then crashed by the police who try to arrest him for beating up Peck. Rufus then discovers an app called Last Friend and connects with Mateo, who also received his Death-Cast call earlier. Mateo only really has two friends, his Dad, and Lydia. He decides that he doesn’t want to burden with her about him dying some time today. He decides to sign up for Last Friend. He has always wished to be a carefree and outgoing person, but sadly he isn’t. So he hopes that this app is able to help him break out of his shell. The two of them agree to meet each other in real life after talking and connecting with one another.

“Life this day to the fullest, okay?”

-Death Cast

“No matter how we choose to live, we both die at the end.”

-Adam Silvera

So here are my discussion questions for anyone who has read Part One yet.

1. How would you like to spend your last day on earth?
2. If you were to tell anyone about you receiving a call from Death-Cast, who will you tell?
3. Why do you think that Mateo decided not to tell Lydia about him receiving the call from Death-Cast? Who do you think benefited from it? Mateo? Or Lidia?
4. How did this story change the idea of your life and death?
5. Did either Mateo or Rufus’ family relate to your family? If so, how?
6. Would you like to know the exact day you will die, if there was a way of knowing?
7. Have you ever encountered a near death experience? If so, what was it? And how did it change your life?

My Answers

1. I would spend my last day with the people that I love. I would have a cup of tea out of my Papa’s tea pot since that brings me a lot of joy. I would love to throw myself a party, that includes dancing and drinking. If I was scheduled to work, I would call in, teehee! I would get my nails done one last time. I would go out for breakfast, because I love pancakes! I would have pasta for lunch, and then Thai food for dinner, hopefully. I would also write a letter to my favourite people reminding them how much I love them, and give them some advice and wisdom to help them even after my passing. I would also include my favourite memories together.
2. I will tell my parents, sister and my two friends that I had received my call from Death-Cast. I also would write a quick post on my blog site including my acknowledgements and how much I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments, and their positive words of encouragement as well.
3. I think that Mateo decided not to tell Lidia because he didn’t want to burden her with him passing away especially since he was the Godfather to her daughter. I think it was for Mateo’s benefit not to tell her since he didn’t want to be the one that would have to tell her that he will die within the next twenty four hours. Because he couldn’t change the outcome of when he was going to die, he was protecting himself by not having to tell her. Lidia has experienced so much sadness especially since her boyfriend had already passed away.
4. The concept of this story has showed me that life is precious. And that sometimes the people we meet can be the ones that bring out the best of us more than the ones we know and love. It has reminded that we must try to live each day to the fullest, instead of doing mindless things that just kill time, like too much time on our phones, too much aimless scrolling, and not enough living. It really is important and necessary to do things that we love.
5. I wasn’t really able to relate to either Mateo’s and Rufus’ family. Although I have experienced loss of loved ones. The hardest loss that I had faced was my Grandpa. So I was able to relate to that aspect of that.
6. I think I wouldn’t mind knowing when my End Date will be. I like that it would give me time to plan the day and decide how I would like to spend my last day. It would give me a chance to say my goodbyes.
7. I had a near death experience when I got hit by a car three years ago. It was so scary. I’m lucky because I didn’t break anything, and thankfully there was no life altering injuries. It gave me more hope and a reason to not let life pass me by. It really did give me a second chance, and I am so glad for that.

This concludes our first discussion of the book. I look forward to reading your answers, and letting me know what your thoughts are on this book. So far I love this book. I am so excited to read the next book!

Here is the schedule for the book club…

Part One Discussion begins November 7th
Part Two Discussion begins November 14th
Part Three Discussion begins: November 21st
Part Four, plus the book as a whole Discussion begins: November 28th

I am so excited for this, and I hope you are, too!

Book Club for November 2022

Hey everyone! I hope you are doing well.

It has always been my dream to host and be a part of a book club. And it felt like the other day the universe sent me a sign! I was at work, and I had a customer ask me for suggestions. That gave me such an amazing feeling! I love being able to talk books. And then when I was aimlessly scrolling through my social media apps on the bus back home, I saw a lot of people talk about how they’re hosting or going to a book club. That was when I knew I should pursue this.

I plan on revealing a new book on the third of every month. I am so happy to be able to do this with you.

And for the month of November, I am selecting…

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.

This book is about how a young man receives a phone call from Death Cast telling him that he is going to die sometime today. He seeks a comrade through an app called The Last Friend where they try to fill today with as much adventure before Death arrives.

The reason why I am selecting this book is firstly it has been on my To Be Read List for over a year now! And I have also wanted to have a mini book club with my friend since I bought this book for his birthday. But then I guess that we both have gotten so busy that we didn’t really get a chance to discuss it, let alone read it.

Another reason why I selected this book is because the holidays can be a challenging for some people. So I like to think that we can all bond over this book together. It is a story that reminds us we can’t experience happiness without sadness. It reminds us that our choices in life impact others, whether or not we realize that. I hope that this book is able to help us make better choices that way we can live our best lives.

I love this book cover. It was done perfectly. I love that if you look closely you can see Death in the shadows, and over the buildings, as well. I also like at the side of the book there are these clocks that are ticking down, sadly ticking down the end of life. At the end of the clocks, Death’s skull is present. I love how much creativity the author put into this book cover.

I plan on having discussions from each part of the story over the month of November, as well, as a final discussion where we can input our ideas and thoughts throughout the novel as a whole. I will come up with a few questions after each part so we can all discuss. I cannot wait to start this journey! I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts of this book.

Mind you, you can read this at your own pace, but when you are discussing in the comment section, please try to post your thoughts based on the part we are currently talking about, to avoid spoiling the ending or other parts about the book for others.

Here is the schedule for the book club…

Part One Discussion begins November 7th
Part Two Discussion begins November 14th
Part Three Discussion begins: November 21st
Part Four, plus the book as a whole Discussion begins: November 28th

I am so excited to finally discuss this with someone. I did read it to part two, but I put the book down so my friend can catch up to me. Unfortunately I did forget somethings, and prefer it to start it from the beginning. But I will be rereading it again so I can remember things for the discussion questions.

I plan on revealing December’s pick on December 3rd. I know that everyone might be bust, because ’tis the season. But feel free to always come back to this page even after the discussions are closed, I don’t mind! I understand that people might not be able to get a copy of the book right away, too but I will be here when you are ready.

What is New With Me?

Firstly, hey everyone! I hate that it has been so long since my last post! But I hope that everyone is well. This year has been difficult. I’ve been feeling down most days. I’ve been feeling sad because of the losses I have encountered this year, so that’s been a bit challenging trying to find the positives in things as of now.

I’ve been working two jobs, which can be tiring, but it has also been rewarding, too. Since I am always working a lot, I end up not having as much time to myself as I would like to have. I do miss having more time to cook some of my delicious meals. So I try to make sure that I budget my time wisely to ensure I get things done and that I can make time for fun. I’ve also been able to try out new restaurants, and making time for people. I’ve also been getting my nails done, which has been a lot of fun! I do enjoy having an active social life.

And during the transition of starting my two jobs, my Grandma passed away. I was really upset about it, because my Grandma helped shaped me into the person that I am today. She has taught me so much, like how to be polite and the importance about using my manners. She passed down her love for cooking and baking to me. Although I feel like I have lost her even before she passed away, because she was sick for throughout a good portion of my life. So I was slowly watching her lose who she was piece by piece. But I am able to find comfort in the fact that she is now reunited with my Grandpa in Heaven.

I have recently reconnected with a friend last year, but it just been feeling like there has been a lot of space between us as of lately. So that can be lonely somedays, and can make me feel a bit sad. I think about my friend from time to time, always sending them good vibes. But this friend does bring me a lot of happiness, so I am glad that we got to reconnect. I think the last time I saw was about eight years ago, or so. We still talked during those times. I’m glad that we are apart of each other’s lives again!

Throughout the year I have been blessed to reconnect and talk to people I haven’t spoken to for a little while, which has been so much fun catching up with everyone. I am thankful for the people who have been by my side no matter what has happened between us.

I am hoping that this year can end on a positive note. This year and the year prior has been difficult for me. I still plan on achieving my goals that I have put in place for myself. I want to go back to school, but I am still figuring what I want to pursue, which for some reason has been challenging, because I can envision myself doing many different jobs.

But I also have some other goals that aren’t job focused per se, such as making more time for reading, and blogging, saving up money, and going through my belongings and the things I own. In hope that I can remove some of the excess stuff that I no longer need. I also want to work on saving up so I can travel! I miss being able to write my own stories. I have written some short stories on here before. I will probably edit them and make them better. But if you are interested in reading these stories. https://yellowdaisies3.wordpress.com/category/writing-wednesdays/

I actually want to start a book club, where hopefully a few people on here will be interested in joining me talk about the book of the month. I have never really been a part of a book club, but I have always wanted to partake in them. I have read a few books from the Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club, and Reese’s Book Club. But I unfortunately haven’t been able to interact with everyone else who has read the books.

I cannot wait to be able to make these goals and dreams happen for me! I hope that the end of this year can lead into a happy and adventurous 2023! I am so beyond happy for myself!

I will be talking more about my Book Club which I have worked out the details of the book I have selected and think of some discussion questions. I am so excited! This is my first time hosting a Book Club, so I do need a bit of research first. Stay tuned!

I would love to know how everyone has been over this year! I would love to catch up with all of you! Please comment and I’ll reach out to everyone. It can be anything from your biggest struggle, a triumph, something that you accomplished, or something you wish to accomplish, or anything you wish to talk about. I would love to reconnect with my followers!

With Love,
Three Yellow Daisies xo

We Run From Pain

“Something terrible happens, we blame ourselves, and we don’t want to feel it, so we run. We run from joy, too because we think we don’t deserve happiness. But it’s a package deal. There is no joy without pain.”

-Meredith Grey, Grey’s Anatomy

For some of you who are new my blog, one of my favourite shows is Grey’s Anatomy. I can binge watch that show for days on end. In fact, I have countless times.

As of lately I have been feeling sad, well I’ve been mostly sad these days. I’ve been trying my best to cheer myself up, some days can be a difficult task than other days.

This was a quote that Meredith says to Teddy about how Teddy is always running from her pain. And that when happy things happen to her, she feels like she doesn’t deserve it. Which I can 100% relate to. This year has been unbearable and challenging at times. I feel like I have been running away from my problems. But that is a never ending race. As much as we hate to admit this, we will never be able to run away from our problems. They will keep on reappearing in our lives until we learn we are needed to learn in the first place. The problem with feelings is they demand to be felt.

I keep on reminding myself that there will come a time that the pain I had to encounter is going to transfer into something so beautiful and joyous. We just have to keep on believing in ourselves, and we’ll see it for ourselves. Our battles and problems will turn us into warriors, we just can’t let them ruin us, or bring us down. If we let our situations belittle us, I hope that we continue to raise to the occasion. Like my Grandpa always said; “Time waits for no one.”.

We think we don’t deserve happiness or joy, but we actually do deserve it. We work so hard, and feel like there isn’t time to truly experience bliss. We are too busy to let these positive emotions in. But we really should be setting aside time for happiness.

When we feel pain, just know that joy is soon to follow. We just have to trust the universe, and ourselves.

Let Go With Grace

I attended a meditative writing workshop a few years ago, and this is what I wrote. It was a small gathering of people where we began to listen to a guided meditation and we would have ten minutes to transfer our thoughts onto our journals. This was actually from five years ago, but I just came across this piece paper the other day. Our starting line for that night was “As I stepped onto the path…” Although I have slightly revised it a bit.

As I stepped onto the path I take a look back and see how far I’ve come and everything that has happened to me, the good, the bad, and the “not so pretty” times, I realized that everything happened for a reason. I learn just how grateful I am for everything. I remember my challenges that gave me the strength to conquer all that I need to in my journey. I trust the universe.

As I stepped onto the path, I I let go of fear of would, or will happen to me. Overthinking at its finest. I let go of the past for it has shaped me into who I am and who I am meant to be. I let go of all that no longer serves me or sparks joy. I let it all go. I let go with grace.

As I stepped onto the path I am lighter. I am free. I release all judgement from others, but more importantly from myself. I welcome joy and allow myself to do things that adds happiness. I become mindful and don’t fret about the past or the future. I stay present.

I keep on moving and welcome great things. As I step onto the path, I can invite new opportunities to better myself.

I no longer let other people judge me or belittle me. I am only trying my best. As I step on the path I know I can do anything I set my mind to. If something goes wrong, or if I stumble, I make it part of my dance and keep on travelling. I let go of what no longer serves me. I listen to the music in my heart, and keep on striving for many adventures on the horizon. As I step on the path, I let go with grace.

A Year in My Life

I wish I could say that this past year has been easy, but truthfully it has been the most extricating, difficult year that I had went through in a very long time. I have experience the loss of many things and people. My world fell apart like a supernova. It all began when my Grandpa passed away last March. His passing broke me, I remember spending days curled up in my bed, crying, and being sad for days on end. I have been replaying a lot of our memories in my head. I have a lot of pictures that I look at when I miss him.

He truly was an amazing person. Everyone loved him and he was everyone’s best friend. He is so missed, but he is forever in my heart. I think about him all of the time.

I had tried taking on a retail job. I have normally just done jobs in the food industry, so it was difficult in the beginning. After months, I have been managing just fine. I have worked a few retail jobs before, so I have been using the skills to my new job. I have actually met some really nice people there. It was a hard adjustment, but now I feel like I can get in the swing of things.

And then unfortunately I experienced another loss when my aunt passed away a few months ago. I miss her so much. I feel bad because I haven’t had many chances to see her recently since the whole covid situation. She passed away so unexpectedly. I always wished I was able to spend more time with her before she passed away. But unfortunately that is life. We all have one last day with everyone, we just never know when that might happen. That is why it is important to stay in touch with the people that matter the most. It should also reinforce us to be kind to each other, since we don’t know what our last words may be to someone.

And another loss that I faced last year, was when my boyfriend and I broke up. We still talk from time to time, we don’t hate each other. We are able to be civil about it.

So this explains why I haven’t been that active in the blog universe.

Although the one good thing about last year is that I was able to reconnect with one of my friends from many years ago. I am happy that the universe decided to bring someone that can bring joy in my life despite taking away people. That is the universe’s way of taking the good with the bad.

After all of the losses I had suffered last year, I truly hope that 2022 is the year for me. Things aren’t exactly perfect right now. But I pray for guidance, and for the strength to not allow myself to stay broken. I will try to rebuild myself so I can come back stronger than ever. My life has been so messy and complicated right now, but what matters is how I rebuild myself after these losses. I have big goals for myself. I am excited for all of the things I have planned to do this year. Of course, I would be documenting my goals and dreams on my blog. I do wish to blog more again.

I truly miss all of you. I hope everyone has been doing well. I appreciate any words of feedback, love and prayers. I will try to get back to everyone who comments. Thank you again for understanding.

Minimalist Game Day 22

I have gotten rid of 213 items this month. I feel proud about myself, not to mention lighter. I also got rid of 192 items last year. Between these two declutter missions, I have eliminated 405 items from my life. It feels amazing. I’m sure there may be more things that I can get rid of, but as of right now, I feel content with the things I have.

For those that wish to partake… I would love to see you document your journey. Tag me in your post(s)!

The rules are simple, you get rid of things from your life, either by selling them, throwing them away, or donating them. On the first day, you remove one item, and then on the second day, you remove two items, you keep on playing until it’s the end of the month, or whenever you run out of things to remove from your life. It is okay if you can’t make it until the end of the month. Personally, I would rather see items get donated, or sold to someone else. If you must throw something away, I hope it’s because it isn’t fixable. Even if you have removed three items from your life, you should still be proud of that, because it is three more things you removed before the challenge. But if you are able to complete this challenge, you would have gotten rid of almost 500 items! That’s a lot of stuff.

A Bend in the Road

I also post an inspirational quote to give you lots of motivation throughout the week.

This is from Monday March 22nd.

Photo Credit: Every Power Blog

I love this quote because it is a reminder that in order for us to accomplish our goals, we get on going, even during the hardships we may encounter along the way.

Broken & Beautiful by Kelly Clarkson

Every week, as part of Music Mondays, I post a positive song to kick start the week! This week is Broken & Beautiful by Kelly Clarkson. I grew up loving Kelly Clarkson. I first saw Kelly Clarkson on American Idol, and I admired all of her songs since then.

She just recently went through a divorce. This is her anthem saying that our hardships can break us down, but that’s okay, because we are broken, but we are still beautiful, and that is what counts. Being broken doesn’t mean anything bad, it talks about how we can overcome these hardships, and come back even stronger.

“I don’t need you to lower the bar for me
I know I’m Superwoman, I know I’m strong
I know I’ve got this ’cause I’ve had it all along
I’m phenomenal and I’m enough
I don’t need you to tell me who to be”

-Kelly Clarkson

Day 81

Hey everyone! I’m just trying to catch up with everything! I’ve missed everyone, and I hope that everyone is doing well.

Every day (or at least) I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing a lesson or something that I have learned and share my wisdom with everyone. I often feel like I have encountered a lot of wisdom from various people and experiences throughout my life.

This is from Monday March 22nd.

Something that I have learned, the hard way, may I add… Is that everything in life is only temporary. So if you are going through hard times today, don’t be so hard on yourself. It just means that things can only go up from here, and things won’t always be this way forever. And unfortunately, when things are going really well, enjoy it, because not everything can last forever. Alas this doesn’t just imply for the events in our lives, it also works for our loved ones. Lots of people will come and go throughout our lives. Whether they move away, or pass away, we must not take them for granted. Instead we should learn to cherish these moments shared with your family and friends.

Today, I will realize that everything in life is only temporary. So I shouldn’t get too angry or upset when I am going through hardships, because nothing lasts forever. And I must remember to pause and reflect on the good times, too, because alas, everything in life is temporary, and things can change on a dime. I should enjoy the good times, and learn from the bad times and the lessons they teach me.