SOULMATES

In ‘Something Like Fate’ by Susane Colasanti, Lani and Jason are “soul mates”, but Jason is Lani’s best friend’s boyfriend. Erin and Lani are really close even though they are sort of opposites. Lani is really shy. She is really passionate about caring for the earth (she always recycles and is president of the One Earth Club at school). Erin is loud and really outgoing. She doesn’t have a huge regard for the earth, she loves to shop and thinks the One Earth Club is weird. Lani and Jason first meet while Jason is dating Erin, they have a strong connection that everyone including Erin notices. Lani and Jason are soul mates but they get too wrapped up in trying to be together and disregard other people.

            Lani and Jason are perfect for each other. They have a lot of similar interests and they get along really well. In the book, when they first meet they instantly remember each other, even though they hadn’t been in the same class for a couple of years.  Lani and Jason also completely understand each other. He understands her need to protect the planet and she convinces him to protect the planet himself.  Blake, Lani’s friend, tells her that they are “meant to be.” Blake tells her this after they all hung out for the first time. He says that he never saw anyone look at her that way. They also continue to do things together, they sit together at lunch every day and they do activities together. Lani and Jason were always really good friends and they both agreed that they wanted to be more.  They were a really good couple because they were always happy with each other. They were “soul mates.”

            Even though Lani and Jason were soul mates, Erin and Jason were dating. The way they told Erin was inconsiderate, rude, and obviously hurt her. The first thing is that while they were still dating, Jason invited Lani everywhere and that upset Erin because she wanted to spend time with him alone, he often treated her like a friend and paid more attention to Lani. During the summer, Erin went away to sleep away camp and Jason and Lani started dating even when he was in a relationship with Erin. When Jason finally decided to break up with Erin, he did it in a letter while she was away at camp. In the letter he was really evasive and quick because wanting to be with Lani distracted him from being considerate to Erin. The letter really hurt Erin but she couldn’t do anything about it and had no idea what was happening between them. And when Lani told Erin they were dating, she did it in an email. They never communicated with her face to face which was inconsiderate. When they told Erin everything, it felt like they were so caught up in their relationship and they were oblivious to the fact that they were hurting her.  They were also mean because even though Erin was upset about the breakup, they visibly dated in front of her. They really hurt Erin and they did apologize, but they didn’t try hard enough.

            In conclusion, Lani and Jason were perfect for each other, but they got so caught up in being together that they made bad choices. They were unaware that even though they had a great relationship they really hurt another. Erin did forgive Lani but they were never the same together. Lani's relationship with Jason caused her to lose a friend.