Adi Alsaid, author of
the new contemporary YA novel
LET'S GET LOST is touring
the web with "Seize the Tuesday" posts to celebrate the publication of his
novel. Each piece will focus on a different, fun example of how Adi was able to
"Seize the Tuesday" in his own life and how that can inspire others to make a
change in their lives too! Seize the Tuesday not only gives readers a glimpse
into Adiโs life, but also introduces readers to one of the key themes in
LET'S GET LOST of "seizing
the Tuesday" - of seizing a moment that can change your life forever.
Five strangers. Countless adventures.One epic way to get lost.
Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA.
She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need
someone the most.
There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams
for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesdayโand a few stolen
goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endingsโฆuntil his own life goes
off-script. And SONIA worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost
the ability to love.
Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves
them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile
journey that she discovers the most important truthโ sometimes, what you need
most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you're
looking for is to get lost along the way.
Seize the Tuesday: Seizing gently
By Adi Alsaid
The very language associated with seizing the day seems to imply some sort of
immediate action, a hand snatching out at the air and clutching at whateverโs
worthwhile, refusing to let go. The way my character, Bree sees it, seizing
Tuesdays is all about action, movement, adrenaline.
I wouldnโt always agree. I think to live life fully, you have to know a little
bit about stillness. Rather than a hand reaching out to grasp, sometimes seizing
Tuesdays is about being gentle with the day, like a hand falling on the back of
a beloved pet, stroking at the fur softly, or fingertips falling over the edge
of a hammock, leaving a trail in the sand.
Lifeโs beauty isnโt just in the whirlwinds. Sometimes, itโs in the pauses. In
the ability to let time go by, pleasantly. In simply observing the world. Or not
even that. Staring out at while filling the scene with your own thoughts. With a
book. With a movie, a television set, even. Just noticing youโre alive. Youโre
in this wonderful, maddening, confusing, inexplicable life. You are, and no
snatching needs to take place to prove it. You simply need to sit back and notice.
An hour where you wake up too early, accidentally granting yourself freedom from
anything else you may have planned. The way an open window pushes air around
your apartment. The bass line in one of your favorite songs that you hadnโt
quite noticed. A man youโve seen several times around the neighborhood, his face
suddenly familiar, like a word you suddenly know the meaning of and will, for
the next few days, seem to be everywhere. The fact that you donโt actually know
how the hell to make a decent cup of coffee, but thatโs never stopped you from
enjoying one. Complaints that you may have had on some other day, relegated
elsewhere, taking a back seat to the simple enjoyment of your life. Yes, feeling
cold and earachey from the wind coming in through the window, but enjoying the
madness of the air anyway, how it makes the passing environment seem cinematic.
Finding a new lunch spot, choosing to keep yourself blissfully ignorant of the
opinions of those whoโve already eaten there.
Seizing days is not, Iโm sorry to say, Bree, always about recklessness, or
wildness, or even manic laughter. Seizing the day is simply about pointing out
to yourself the fact of your existence, the beauty of it. The worldโs ineffable,
inexplicable wonders. Thatโs it. You can do it on the roof of a building in the
middle of one of the most crowded cities in the world. You can do it at a cabin
on the top of a mountain twenty miles from civilization. You can do it at the
sight of a loved one, the freckles on her back that youโll never actually
memorize. Or maybe in the coy eye-contact dance with someone youโd like to meet.
The horizon, what it looks like, what it means scientifically, figuratively, its
changing colors. The taste of a damn mango, dripping juices down your chin, the
breeze blowing strongly enough to dry the cloudy-clear streaks before anyone has
noticed a thing. Before it was noticed at all.
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