In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, life changes aren’t as easy as rubbing your hands together. Getting change depends on many things. One example is poverty. People in poverty experience many hardships like the struggle of getting a job and being able to feed themselves. Most teens think that it is easy to turn your life around. But when you are so focused on staying alive, you don’t really think that you can make a better future for yourself. However, change isn’t impossible. So maybe teens should know that change is a long journey, but the outcome is worth it.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is a realistic fiction story based on the life of the author when they were a teen. The book is written in a diary style form bringing us into the main character’s mind. As the readers read more of the book, they learn more about the difficulties of being Junior. He lives with many disabilities that separate him from everyone else, which makes him picked on for being different. If you want a book where you understand the way the character feels, then this book is for you. Junior takes us on the journey of him making multiple choices that pave the way for his future to either live like everyone else or have a different life. 

Alexie sets up the character at the beginning as a normal fourteen year old boy. But has him tell the readers all about how everyone else doesn’t see him as normal although, on the inside, he is normal. He describes how they all outcast him in the community. However, Junior wants them to see the “real him”. As a teen myself, fitting in with the crowd and having people like you is very important. It’s important because we all feel like we want validation and respect among our peers. So, I can’t help but empathize with Junior and feel bad for his social situation. Because of Junior wanting to be accepted by the community, leaving it would be a tough decision for him to make. However, Junior doesn’t want to live here forever because everyone else that has lived on the rez, stayed there for the rest of their lives in poverty and doing the same thing they’ve been doing for generations. So Junior has to make the tough choice of wanting to be accepted in the rez community or leave for a life where he can make his own future. Junior chooses to want a different life because he sees how miserable everyone else is on the rez and he wants to be happier. But he is still in poverty so the road to change his life won’t be easy, but it’ll be worth it. In the end, he leaves the rez and everything else behind him to start a new journey for himself.

As an 8th grade student, I work hard in school so I could get a better education. I find myself swamped with work but in the end, I have high grades for each subject. I see that working for these high grades is not a walk in the park. There are many other things I have to work hard for. One example is playing basketball. I play almost every day of the week for hours just to get a little better each day. However, after a while, I get noticeably better and I work this hard because I want to show everyone,

including myself, that I am good at basketball. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Junior does a lot of hard work to leave the rez. That ranged from leaving his best-friend - to - switching to a different school - to - him winning a basketball competition against the reservation’s high school basketball team.

Maybe it is time, dear teen reader, that you think about how everything in life isn’t handed to you for free, you have to work for it. Also, think about how you should change your life so you can live your best life. One person with a lot of experience with life help and coaching is Thema Davis, a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University. She once said, “Don’t stress about the closed doors behind you. New doors are opening every moment and you will see them if you keep moving forward.” What she means by this is that you should focus on new, better opportunities that make you happier and more fulfilled instead of focusing on the past and not moving on in life.

Get a copy of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian and be taken front seat into the mind of Junior. Learn more about poverty and how it can affect people’s lives, especially those who live on reservations.