The Choice - Summary, Connection to My Life and Visualization

The Choice is by Nicholas Sparks. In the beginning of this book, Travis Parker, has a neighbor named Gabby Holland. They don’t know each other very well but he sent her a welcome basket when she moved in. Gabby is very upset at Travis because she thinks that his dog impregnated her beloved dog. One night when Travis has music on late on a Saturday night, Gabby marches over to his house. On the way there, his dog accidentally knocks her over. Once he helps her up, it seems rude to yell at him but she does anyways. She doesn’t give him a chance to defend himself or his dog but he does have time to tell her that she should definitely take her dog to the veterinarian the next day because it could be an infection, not a pregnancy. The next day, when she takes lunch from her job as a physician’s assistant at a pediatrician’s office, she takes her dog over to the vet’s. When she gets there, she finds out that Travis is the vet.

*Connection to My Life*

A few years ago, I had a neighbor who was rude and did not like my dog. He tried to annoy her and get her aggravated so that he could blame her for being a bad dog. Unfortunately, once we got to know him, he didn’t get any nicer.

Back to the story, after Gabby finds out that Travis is a vet and that his dog was fixed, she couldn’t really blame him for her dog being pregnant. Gabby avoided Travis for the next two weeks. When her dog gave birth to the puppies and had complications, she had to call Travis over to her house to help out, he asked her to go parasailing with him and his friends that Saturday, she obliges, after informing him that she has a boyfriend that she is in love with. She decides to go because she has nothing better to do. They go up in the parasailing parachute. Gabby loves it and insists on going up again. Once they get to the beach for a picnic, Travis and Gabby sit together and have a conversation. After everyone else goes home, they have dinner together at his house. When she is about to go home, Travis kisses her. Gabby is upset with this because she has a boyfriend but secretly liked it and agreed to go on his motorcycle with him the next day. When they went on the motorcycle ride, it was awkward at first. Gabby had to hold on to Travis but she hesitated and held on very lightly. They went through several towns. When they got to Travis’s uncle’s private road, he let Gabby ride on the motorcycle alone for a bit. Once she was done riding, they rode back to Beaufort and he showed her the lot her bought for his future dream house. They have another conversation and they talk about how once her boyfriend comes home, their relationship will be over. When Travis asks why, Gabby says that she would want to be more than friends but then they drop the subject and go to check on her dog and the puppies. Then they plan to have dinner at her place at seven o’ clock that night. While Gabby cooked and got ready for dinner, Travis had to give his dog a bath because he had rolled in fish guts in the creek behind their house. He also had to mow the lawn and all the while, Gabby was shopping, cooking and showering before dinner. She had made chicken, pasta and salad for dinner. When Travis came over, they talked some more and he declared his love for her but right after, Gabby’s boyfriend called. After she hung up with him, she decided to kiss Travis. They kissed again and then went further. They got funky with it. After that, Travis knew that the past weekend was going to change his life forever. They spent every free second with each other over the nest two days. When it came time for Gabby's boyfriend to return from the convention he had been at, Gabby made the difficult choice to break up with him. After this, it cuts to eleven years later. You find out that Gabby and Travis got married, had two daughters and built their dream house on that plot of land Travis had. You also find out that in a car crash that as basically Travis' fault, Gabby had suffered a head injury and had been in a coma for three months. While Gabby had been working at the local hospital, she had met a man who's wife was in a coma. She ran into him a while later and he basically resented his wife for being in a coma, although he didn't come out and say it. This made Gabby decide that she wanted to end her life after being in a coma for an extended period of time if she ever ended up in one. Travis can't do this to Gabby and has her moved to an assisted living home. 4 months later, Gabby woke up from her coma. It took her a while to be able to do all of things she was used to doing but even was still so glad just to have her back.

*Visualization*

Throughout this book, they talk about the creek behind their houses, the beach they walk their dogs on, and Travis' coastal plot. I always imagine a beach like Ferry Beach where you don't just see water and waves going on and on but you can see other towns and islands all around you.Also, since they are always around the water and Travis does a lot of water sports, it is a big part of this book and the picture of it in my head really stands out and is strengthened each time they describe the water around them.