Puzzle Pieces

In high school I had a friend who would always read the last few pages of a novel before beginning it. She told me that she did it because she wanted to see if it was worth reading. Personally, I thought this idea was insane - what is the joy of reading the book if you already know the ending?!

I assume that part of my perspective is just built into me. Ever since I was young, I have enjoyed math problems, jig-saw puzzles, and mind games because of the joy of figuring them out, not because of what the answer or end result is. When the answer is given to me, the game instantly becomes uninteresting. In the same way, when I finally complete a jig-saw puzzle, I may look at it for a day or two and then pack it up to be completed another year. It was fitting the pieces together that I really enjoyed.

So much of life is compiled of the little unexpected pieces--

Ones that make you laugh: watching friends make cultural blunders and then trying to cover them up, awkward conversations with people who don't speak English (filled mainly with smiling and laughing at each other), texting your roommate who is sitting right next to you instead of studying like you both should be doing, and watching that Korean professor who semi-stalks you sheepishly wave at you in the dining hall.

And also pieces that make you discouraged: longings of homesickness, wishing you could see your brother graduate, stress from difficult relationships, trying to figure out your purpose in life, and feeling lonely in a foreign land, or even in a place you call home.

I wouldn't give up those little pieces for anything. They make up my story and without them, I would be an empty book. 

In some ways, I agree with my friend. I think knowing parts of the "ending" is important to encouraging you to keep moving on in life. It is beneficial to know what the jig-saw puzzle is going to look like in the end sometimes to help you put the pieces together. Or even that the math problem has an actual answer, (and isn't one of those imaginary numbers!). I often long to see the last chapter in my book, just to have a glimpse of where I am going. Thankfully, I know my book is worth continuing: I can see that clearly from what I have already read and from the small glimpse of the ending I've experienced.

But I know that if I read the end of my book, or even the next chapter, the rest wouldn't be worth reading for me. Not that my life isn't a good book - oh, how I long for my life to be a good book! - but the joy of reading it would be gone. I would already know the ending, and the puzzle would be put together.

So much of the significance of the end of something comes from how you get there. If you skip to the end, those little things seem even littler. But if you wait and read each chapter at a time, you get to watch how the little things grow and actually are what make up the big things. Though the end is  extremely important, it is how you get there that makes up the story.

And if you skip a few pages, the end seems significantly less significant.

Like jig-saw puzzles, though ultimately they form a beautiful picture to be looked at and awed after, their main purpose is to be put together. Without all the pieces, it wouldn't be a puzzle anymore, it would just be a picture.

And yes! Pictures are stunning! But how much more stunning is a picture when you have spent many long and hard hours watching each piece come perfectly together?!