Read the prologue again. Speculate: Would Naomi have made some of the same choices/charges if she had not experienced amnesia?

If Naomi never had amnesia, I think she wouldn't of cut her hair, she would of stayed doing the yearbook the whole year, not do the play, still have Ace as a boyfriend (or maybe Will), and her family relations would continue to be strained. I feel her amnesia allowed her to grow as a person.

I really believe that had Naomi not had her accident she would not have had her profound reality check. It was the best thing that could have happened to her.

...it is funny how life works like that. Sometimes it takes an act such as an accident to make you realize or at least more aware of the important things around you. I certainly learned that lesson last year.

I agree with you ladies. I think had it not been for her accident Naomi would have continued down the same path she was on. It probably wasn't a bad one, she probably did like yearbook and did like her boyfriend, but I doubt if she really would have taken the initiative to explore other options for herself. Seeing herself through new eyes definitely gave the opportunity she needed to move in a different direction.
I was impressed that she reinvented herself. I found myself wondering if I would have been able to do the same thing. It would have probably been easier to fall back into her old routines, but I think it took a lot of strength of character to dare to try something different despite what everyone would be thinking about her.

I think that by losing herself Naomi found herself. No amnesia, no chance for change. I think that Naomi was trying to be what everyone else wanted her to be...tennis star...yearbook editor...girlfriend...popular...etc.
I think that she may have enjoyed some of these things but she also found out that there was more to herself then what met the eye! I love how her closing line is "Sometimes a girl has to lose." What a profound statement...if you look deeper. By losing it all she gained it all and more!

Definitely would have to agree with all your posts. The amnesia was a blessing. It reunited her with her mother and opened her to accepting Rosa, seeing that she really did not fit in with Ace's crowd and their behavior.

Without it she never would have had the courage to become herself.

I think that without the amnesia, she would have been trapped like many of us where when we were younger (and some people always are), being "everyone else's girl". I think it is a look at how our society puts these expectations on people, years of "brainwashing" how, what, and who we are supposed to be. She lost her most "impressionable years" and found her true self. I like to believe that everyone has these moments of "amnesia" in their life, the moment where we stop and wonder if we are "doing" this life for ourselves or for everyone else and what they expect us to be.

Her father summed it up really good later in the book, at his wedding, when he tells her

I think Naomi would have gotten to the same place eventually but wouldn't have learned as much during the process.

Another one of those life paradoxes.

I agree that she wouldn't have changed. She would have had no need to change if it hadn't been thrust upon her. This thread brought up these questions to me:

What would change in your life if you had a traumatic accident like amnesia to make you change?

What can you do now - without waiting for a "catastrophe" to force it- so that your life is going more the way you want it to?

You don't need to answer aloud, but they are questions worth considering.

(Wow, it's good to discuss books because none of this had occured to me just from reading the book, but by discussing it I have thought meaningful things - thanks for the catalyst everyone)

I agree with you Jenny. I think Naomi would have gotten there eventually, but I think that the amnesia gave her a unique opportunity to see her own life from the outside looking in. I doubt she would have had the chance to learn as much with out the amnesia.

I think amnesia was her chance to START OVER..to really look at herself.