I've read Little Women at two different stages of my life: the first one when I was 12, and the second one when I finished university. In both of them, I was on the edge of the end and the beginning of important parts of my life and somehow the book was there as a companion but more important as a catalyst of changes in the way I saw life. But there were a lot of things that were different in each reading so here are my experiences with Little Women:

A parent of one of my classmates donated several classic books, so our sixth-grade teacher assigned us to read one book each month and make a report of it. Though the initiative of it was amazing, I have to admit I'd find most of them difficult to understand and I wasn't interested in their themes so I didn't like most of them¯\_(ツ)_/¯. However, as soon as I started Little Women it was a completely different feeling because it made me excited instead of miserable.

It was one of the first books I felt I could relate to the protagonists and their conflicts despite living at different times because they were flawed (as any other real human) but learned from their mistakes. 

From all the sisters the one I felt more identified with was Jo and wanted to be even more like her. I loved her passion for writing and just like her, I was at that age when girls become teenagers and I kept wondering why everyone around me seemed so eager to grow up.  

Ten years later, the experience was so different, it felt like reading it with new eyes. I only became aware of the second part after watching the movie (the one with Winona Ryder, Christian Bale, and baby Kirsten Dunst) so it was a good opportunity to make the complete read when I finally got a beautiful copy of my own.

This time I realized I could identify with not just Jo, but with all the sisters: I've had doubts about my art like Amy,  I'm an introvert who loves her home like Beth, and like Meg, I've come to realize how much I value to stay humble. I had dreams like them, but I was also facing how difficult it is to achieve them in reality and how adult life is so different and way more complex than what you think when you are younger *cries*.

I loved the relationship Jo and Laurie had. When I was a kid I obviously just saw their sweet friendship but as a 22-year I was so sad knowing my ship not only was deep underwater but the reasons behind it.

After reading each chapter, I was left with this feeling of inspiration for becoming a better person and that made me realize how books can transcend into the lives of their readers. Just like them, I was learning to be a sister, a woman and let's just face it, a decent human being. Little Women has become a precious book to me, one that I can reread and watch in movies over and over again (with a good cup of chocolate preferably).