Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng Book Review

Imagine a problem in your life, annoying and pestering you. Now think of how it could become ten times worse if you put off solving in. Problems cause stress and tension, but running away from your problem you face can make it so much worse. In the book “Everything I Never Told You”, by Celeste Ng, the main character Lydia Lee faces many issues through her high school life she refuses to combat. In general, problems are unavoidable, and letting them pile up can cause them to fester and become so much worse. When you have too many things going on in your life and you put off solving your problems it can cause all sorts of bad things, like pain, and distress.  Therefore, running from your problems can cause more issues than solutions.

People face problems every day and if you run away from them it could hurt you in the long run.  Everyone faces problems and how you deal with them can greatly impact you. It never feels good to be overwhelmed with problems or have to fix them at the last second. Rather than finding solutions as soon as a problem presents itself when you wait to find solutions your list of problems can grow. Nevertheless, once you have faced your problems you will experience relief and peace. Otherwise, if you run away from the problems you experience you will feel stress and worry. Relief and peace are much better to feel than stress and worry, therefore you should not run away from your problems because they will only come back to bite you.

Basic principles and facts show avoiding problems can affect you, but “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng also displays many times when running away from your problems causes more issues. After the death of their prized daughter Lydia, James and Marylin both suffer great grief. To deal with his grief James seeks out an affair with his teaching assistant Louisa. While at the moment it might feel good for James to forget about his loss and be with Lousia, when he comes home he is only anger, and the death of his daughter still lingers in his mind. After Marylin, his wife finds out about the affair it is also quite damaging to their marriage and causes the family to be distant and divided.  In a tense fight between Marylin and James Marylin comments,“ ‘I am disappointed...I thought you were different.’ What she means is: I thought you were better than other men. I thought you wanted better than that” (242). James cheating on Marilyn has hurt her and made her reevaluate her thoughts on him. Marylin fell in love with James because he was different, but he never realized that. Also, before Lydia’s death, James would have never thought to be with anyone but Marylin. However, after her death when James couldn’t face his problems he made things worse and caused wounds to the family and himself by having an affair. While the family may have repaired after years of work, the initial flight from his problems left unnecessary pain never forgotten.   

Like when James and Nath run away from their problems when I avoid my problems it often creates more issues for me. For example some nights I have more homework than others. If I put off doing the homework it does me no good. It just leaves me with less time to do it, which could cause me to get a bad grade. Therefore, when I avoid doing my homework or wait to do it at the last minute the outcome is I have less time, bad grades, and have made no progress in my homework. So, when I run away from my issue of having lots of homework it does not benefit me but creates more problems and only hurts me in the end. 

While in my life I have avoided problems which come back to bite me, some could argue running away from your problems might be best. You could argue that someone might not be in the right headspace to solve at the moment. However, when you solve problems sooner they don’t get the chance to fester and grow more. Possibly, you don't want to put everything on your plate at once, but if you solve your issues right away they won’t pile up and overwhelm you. There may be rare times when putting off your problems may help you, but in most scenarios, the benefits of that don’t nearly out way the relief you will feel once you have tackled your issue. Therefore, while avoiding your problems is tempting the best results will come out of facing them straight on. 

Problems in one's life can be detrimental and distressing especially if you wait to solve them. From my own experience, the book “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng, and basic principles show that solving problems sooner rather than later is one of the most helpful things you can do for yourself and others...