If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I just started reading the book If I Stay by Gayle Forman this weekend, and so far it's really simple and character introductions.  The book hasn't developed at all up to this point, but the main character is extremely relatable through her interests and family conflicts and relations, even though she is seventeen years old.  Being that I just finished the first chapter, there was only one substantial excerpt that I felt had some meaning beyond introduction purposes.  It might just be a short setting opening, but when I read through it for the second time, it showed importance, and poetic development of the future plot.  The first page reads, "Everyone thinks it was because of the snow. And in a way, I suppose that’s true.  I wake up this morning to a thin blanket of white covering our front lawn. It isn’t even an inch, but in this part of Oregon a slight dusting brings everything to a standstill as the one snowplow in the county gets busy clearing the roads. It is wet water that drops from the sky—and drops and drops and drops—not the frozen kind."

I'm not sure what the "it" is in the first sentence of this paragraph, but I think her description of the snow has some foreshadowing insight within it.  I think that describing the snow as "thin" and saying "it isn't even an inch" shows small change.  I think that it is showing the lesson that even the smallest of actions can make a difference, and that even if you are just one person, you can change a lot in the world.  This also goes into the next line, "a slight dusting brings everything to a standstill."  I think this is showing the change that each action can make.  Further on in the story, I believe that Mia, the main character, will have a series of life changing/world changing actions, that may be small, yet still have a large outcome.  The repetition at the end of the paragraph sort of helps this description flow into the next idea of the book, but also shows, within the lesson that I got from this opening, how change isn't sold, or all there at first, but it slowly drips its way into the world to make a difference, even if the people around you (the snowplow) try and wipe away your change. 

This section reminds me of two quotes:

"But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream."

"A person's a person, no matter how small."