Everything You Ever Wanted: Poem Analysis

The memoir I selected was Everything You Ever Wanted by Jillian Lauren. She describes her troubles as a college dropout, a drug addict, and a harem member; then she talks about how she turned everything around when she married a rock star and adopted an Ethiopian baby boy with special needs. Her tone gives off vibes of strength and courage. All throughout the memoir, she also expands upon her own experiences as an adopted child, and how adopting a child herself (after many failed pregnancy attempts) made her see the world in a new light. To begin, Jillian’s style is very casual. She throws in swear words and is an untraditional woman. Starting with her childhood, she was adopted into a family as a young child and she even had a brother. Her parents always wanted to have her be a normal girl, who fit in with the crowd. However, Jillian was a rebellious teen, going to school dressed in a Sex Pistols t-shirt and fishnet tights under ripped shorts. This resulted in her relationship with her parents being shaky and distant, and this is something that comes up again in her later life.

That was how she met her best friend, Jennifer. Jillian was in beauty school, but she resented every minute of it. All she wanted to do was become a writer. So, when she met her future husband, Scott, she would go on tour with him and write on the tour bus nonstop. Eventually they did marry, and she felt ecstatic. The way she described this relationship was romantic and spontaneous. Shortly after marriage, Jillian pursued a college degree in creative writing, while her husband kept recording with the band. They had a home in Los Angeles at this point, and Jillian felt this was the first step to living a “normal” life. This is where the tone of the memoir begins to