June by Rion

June by Rion - April 2014 Scholarship Essay

Out of the hundreds of books I have ever had the great fortune of reading, a select few have ever had characters so absolutely resplendent that they have remained with me even after the book has finished. Among these characters is June Boatwright in Sue Monk Kidd’s “The Secret Life of Bees.” Although she is not the main character, she has impacted my life more deeply than many main characters ever will.

June is a difficult character to truly appreciate. She is hard to deal with, careful, passionate, reserved, caring, and angry all at the same time. She is very protective of herself; she doesn’t really let anyone in. Throughout the novel, June’s personal thoughts are rarely presented. She simply is who she is, without further explanation. And yet, despite this, I found myself engrossed more deeply in her character than any other.

It occurred to me that June is very much like myself. As I read further, I found that she was, very nearly, just an adult version of me. And in a way that bothered me. It wasn’t until several months after I finished the book that I fully understood why; June was quite unhappy. Even in love, she was still angry, still guarded. It took an incredibly traumatic event for June to begin to open up, and by that time the novel was almost over.

Even surrounded by the love and support of friends and family, I am often unhappy. I take everything so seriously and find getting close to people far easier said than done. I am short-tempered, but despite this, I care so much more than I would ever like to show. I am not particularly good at expressing how I feel or dealing with stressful situations in a pleasant manner.

I wanted to be different than June; I didn’t want have to endure the tragedy that she had to in order to become the person I felt that I needed to be. I had no idea how to go about it, though. Outside help was limited; no matter how motivational any one person can be, they can’t change anything for you, they can’t tell you what the best way to handle a problem, and they can’t tell you the best way to live your life. That made the effort of changing my attitude on things holistically my own.

Since then, I have tried various ways of being better. Better to others, better to myself, trying to find some way to be the person I can only hope to be when my days run out. I constantly find myself to fix the things I find problematic. Although I stumble at times, I always try.

Sometimes, it takes a fictional person to show you actual problems. This was the case for me with June Boatwright. The impact her character has had on me is incomparable to anything because the impression she left is so much more personal. It isn’t often you come across somebody exactly like you, and rarer still to find that somebody within the pages of a book. I don’t really know if I would be any different from whom I was if I hadn’t read “The Secret Life of Bees.” Maybe I would have found similar motivation elsewhere, on a billboard, or on television. Maybe I would have been exactly the same. I won’t ever know. Quite frankly, I don’t care to.