Book 286 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Until We Write Again!

Book – Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Book Description:

In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

Reflection:

My whole life, I’ve known of the name Anne Frank, but I honestly knew nothing about her beyond the fact she was a young girl who kept a diary while hiding from the Nazi’s in World War II.

In 2018, my wife, Felicia and I visited Amsterdam and she mentioned that she really wanted to go see “The Anne Frank House” and make it a part of our to do list while there. I said, “Sure, why not”, without knowing really anything about the person or the story. I honestly didn’t even know she lived in Amsterdam.

We were out walking around the city on our first day there, and we came across the house. As we approached the house, we saw a massive line wrapped around the outside. We soon discovered that it is always like this and that we needed tickets in advance to secure a tour. We then found out that all were sold out for that particular day. We investigated the next 2 days, which is all we had in Amsterdam, and they were sold out as well.

We never saw got a chance to take the tour.

At the time, I didn’t care, but Felicia was really bummed. Now, after reading the book, I’m really bummed as well.

You can’t read The Diary of Anne Frank without feeling a meaningful connection with the girl. She let you into her world with her writing. You got to feel like you were there with her in the annex. You got to feel her growth as a human throughout the few years she documented her life while trapped in hiding. You got to experience the growth in her reflective writing. You grew up with Anne.

That is why that you have to buy tickets to tour “The Anne Frank House” weeks in advance of your trip to Amsterdam almost 80 years after she left this Earth.

The saddest part of the whole journal was that we all get to form this meaningful connection with Anne, but she was never able to find that meaningful connection herself during her short time in this world. She wrote about “The 2 Anne’s” on her last journal entry before she was captured, and it broke my heart. There is one Anne that she shows to the world that they think they know which is happy go lucky, always smiling, and doesn’t take anything seriously. Then, there is the real Anne that we got to know through her reflective writing that she yearned to share with the world but had nobody at this stage in her life to share that with other than her journal.

Unfortunately, she would never get that chance.

However, that is the power of writing. By sharing her thoughts with the world in her writing, Anne went on to forge meaningful connections that span the world that she would have never dreamed possible at the time. So much so, that 80 years after she passed away, people line up outside a house all day just for a chance to be in her presence for a tiny second.

Something about that thought gives me goosebumps and inspires me to forge on with this journey of sharing my own life with the world.

Who knows what will happen to me someday, but I know that by sharing my thoughts that someone out there will read this someday and we will connect. That is what life is all about.

As Anne would say, until we write again!

Question: Do you still think that writing your thoughts and sharing with the world doesn’t matter? What are you waiting for?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl