As part of my 30-day blog challenge, I’m going to share about my favorite book, Dear John. This book was written by Nicholas Sparks who was inspired by the movie Casablanca. According to him, this movie is one of his favorites. The parallels between the novel and the movie can be seen when you finish the book. I first read this novel when I was still in high school and left me depressed for weeks, and I mean literally because I can barely perform simple tasks due to a broken heart. It felt like I was paralyzed. This, I can still remember. I later found myself reading it again a couple of times during college. Now, the reason why this is my favorite book is it explores what it really means to love another person and not everything has a happy ending.

My favorite book – Dear John

This novel is a story of John and Savannah who fell madly in love with each other, but were separated. However, they never stopped loving each other. They met on a summer day in North Carolina while John, who is a soldier, was taking a leave from his duty. They were madly in love, but John needed to leave to attend to his military service. Because John was a school drop-out, he enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces to find his meaning in life. He had a dad but they barely had normal conversations, because John thought that something was wrong with his father. However, his dad refused to see a doctor. His dad had an obsession with collecting of coins.

Back to military service…

When John left Savannah for the military, they decided to continue their relationship as John found that he loved her more than anything. Every single time, he was looking forward to see her again. They remained in touch and kept on sending love letters to each other to keep up with each other’s life. When 911 happened, John had to reenlist. Still, they continued to write to each other.

They continued to keep in touch until Savannah got tired of waiting. When she was away for college, she met another man. She then sent John a letter telling him that she would stop waiting for him for she wanted a real life with a real relationship. When John received this letter, they stopped the communication. John was heartbroken.

They met again.

Years passed and John learned about his father’s death. They never had the chance to reconcile. Being on leave, he decided to go home and then tried to look for Savannah – only to find out that she was already with that other man, her husband. John and Savannah talked. Even though she still had feelings for him, and him for her, they decided to leave their story in the past. John decided to let Savannah go because he loved her more than anyone and he only wanted her happiness. Savannah’s husband had a melanoma, and that he was going to die unless he received a better and more expensive treatment. They couldn’t afford it. Her husband spoke with John that if there’s something that would happen to him, John would take care of Savannah.

Despite of the chance of being reunited with the woman he loved, John decided to gather all the coins collected by his father. He sold them. John knew exactly how important those coin collection was, but still, he donated it to fund the treatment. He did this for Savannah.

True love wins because it never competes.

Afterwards, John went back to Iraq. They never spoke again as he continued to live his army life.

Some Quotes from the Movie

This post is part of 30-day blog challenge below.

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Cha Esper

Cha of Little Misadvencha is a Filipino Civil Engineer, researcher and a fur mom. She came from General Santos City and finds that everything in life teaches her a lesson. She is inspired to write about and out of her experiences, but later found out that it was her experiences that actually inspire her.