"Study as if you were to live forever, live as if you were to die tomorrow." (Maria Mitchell)

In an interview with the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky answers questions in an online chat forum. A specific question asked by BJ LovEng raises the question whether Charlie had an ephiphany or not. This is an interesting issue to explore, especially since Chbosky affirms the question and says Charlie had a sort of "moment of realization."

What brings me to this is my confusion with the epilogue when Charlie spent two months in the hospital. At first, I thought perhaps that Charlie did something severe to himself knowing that his friends were leaving for college which parallels to when Charlie was in the hospital when Aunt Helen died.

The interview with Chbosky doesn't make it clear as to what Charlie's ephiphany was, but it may be accurate to assume that Charlie's friends meant so much to him and were such in intricate part of his life that their leaving left Charlie not only emotionally hurt, but physically hurt as well.
Remember when Charlie kissed Sam at the party instead of his own girlfriend, and that Patrick basically told him to lay low for a while until things smoothed over? After a while, Charlie could hardly stand the isolation. He was lonely and craved the interaction with his friends again. Having personal relationships was an important thing for Charlie.

On the other hand, as much as I argue the importance of his friends, I want to also say that this was not apparent to Charlie. When Patrick told him to lay low for a while, Charlie took it with a grain of salt. He didn't seem overly emotional or upset that he wasn't able to talk to his friends. He basically felt as if he deserved it as punishment.

The tone of Charlie's journal entries are so melancholy and mellow that I often wondered about Charlie's alertness. Was he constantly numb? I never got a clear sense of his anger, his happiness, even though at times he used words to express his feelings, the choice of words still left an air of dullness.

However after reading the interview with Chbosky, I learned that Chbosky's intent was perhaps, in a way, for the book was to be a collection of observations from the viewpoint of a teenage boy, where Charlie and the characters ran from their emotions rather than facing them.