"Growing up is not the problem, forgetting is"
I watched the Little Prince the night before I left for Sacramento and I'm so glad I did. That movie hits some emotional soft spots in me that I didn't even know I had. Basically, it's a story about a little girl with a controlling mother who tries to rush her through childhood and make her into a successful adult ASAP. The girl meets a nice old man, they become friends, and she learns the importance and beauty of human connection. I love this movie for many reasons, two being the important life lessons/reminder it has to offer, reminders that are easy to forget (especially once we grow up). One of my favorite quotes from the film is "it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." I know this is some Helen-Keller-esque, super cliche phraseology, but I still think they're onto something. I am my clearest, happiest self when I am able to look at things with love. I'm guilty of forgetting this all the time. I've been told to be "practical" and "realistic" my entire life, do something that will make me successful. I get caught up in my own anxieties, fear of what other people think, frustrations with daily life. I worry I won't become this picture-perfect vision of success. But what the frick is success anyway? How can you create an objective definition of that? The answer is, and it's taking me forever to realize this, but you can't!
Success, for me, happens when I think about all the wonder that is around me. Success is that I've found people that warm my heart just upon thinking of them. Success is finding a moment where I am not afraid I'm not good enough. It is realizing I already have everything I need exactly where I am. Even now, when most of the people I love are thousands of miles away, I think of them and I am home. Damn, this is getting cheesy. Thx a lot Little Prince. Thx for helping remind me that if we don't have love and kindness we don't really have anything at all.
Another quote from this movie that tugs on those heart strings of mine is when the little girl tells the old man she is scared of growing up. He replies "growing up is not the problem, forgetting is!" UGH. When we are little, we see magic everywhere. It's effortless. Our biggest fears are the monsters under the bed and getting on the bus alone for school. When we get older, it becomes a challenge to see the good in things. We're drowned in cynicism. Our fears become much more dangerous. We start fearing monsters like rejection, pain, lost love. These monsters are the scariest because they're real and they steal innocence, something you don't know you love so dearly until it's gone. No matter what you do in this life, you will need to face the bad at some point. I think what the old man in the Little Prince was getting at is that the real challenge we face is remembering magic in the world despite all the bad, all the monsters. It's not letting yourself forget that child's voice within you, whispering quietly that it wants you to be free. It's being unafraid to love despite knowing, as an experienced grown-up and all, you may lose.
The main reason I brought up the Little Prince is because here, I get to be a kid again. It's a strange dichotomy, because I wear uniforms and have to follow rules and be a responsible adult. But when we have breaks, we are 10 again, silly and fearless, seeking adventure everywhere we go. Yesterday, we spent our break jumping off a wall that is a little too high into each others' arms, simply trusting we wouldn't be dropped. Once our work day ended, we spent hours running around the field playing frisbee until the sky turned red and we got called in for dinner. After dinner, we were assigned cleaning duty and Ian and I had "mop wars" to see who could cover the most hallway the fastest. We ran down the halls, seeing how far we could slide before we fell. I laughed so hard I think it made me drunk. After duty, we played manhunt under the streetlights. Wynn scraped her knee up real bad and it was bleeding all over the place. This guy Braham tripped on his way to the base and slid so hard he ripped his pants. Playing manhunt brought me to a place of nostalgia I haven't visited in a while, a place of scraped knees and giddy competition. I was smiling to myself like an idiot while hiding behind the bushes near my building. I had that very same rush of adrenaline I remember having years ago at family barbecues, when I was about to make a run for it to get to the base, which was always the big rock on Grandma and grandpa's lawn. I realized that I did grow up. I'm 22, my family lives across the country, I have my own health insurance, and I'm responsible when I need to be. I realized I've seen some monsters in my time, but I haven't let them take me down. Most importantly, I haven't forgotten.
~V
Success, for me, happens when I think about all the wonder that is around me. Success is that I've found people that warm my heart just upon thinking of them. Success is finding a moment where I am not afraid I'm not good enough. It is realizing I already have everything I need exactly where I am. Even now, when most of the people I love are thousands of miles away, I think of them and I am home. Damn, this is getting cheesy. Thx a lot Little Prince. Thx for helping remind me that if we don't have love and kindness we don't really have anything at all.
Another quote from this movie that tugs on those heart strings of mine is when the little girl tells the old man she is scared of growing up. He replies "growing up is not the problem, forgetting is!" UGH. When we are little, we see magic everywhere. It's effortless. Our biggest fears are the monsters under the bed and getting on the bus alone for school. When we get older, it becomes a challenge to see the good in things. We're drowned in cynicism. Our fears become much more dangerous. We start fearing monsters like rejection, pain, lost love. These monsters are the scariest because they're real and they steal innocence, something you don't know you love so dearly until it's gone. No matter what you do in this life, you will need to face the bad at some point. I think what the old man in the Little Prince was getting at is that the real challenge we face is remembering magic in the world despite all the bad, all the monsters. It's not letting yourself forget that child's voice within you, whispering quietly that it wants you to be free. It's being unafraid to love despite knowing, as an experienced grown-up and all, you may lose.
The main reason I brought up the Little Prince is because here, I get to be a kid again. It's a strange dichotomy, because I wear uniforms and have to follow rules and be a responsible adult. But when we have breaks, we are 10 again, silly and fearless, seeking adventure everywhere we go. Yesterday, we spent our break jumping off a wall that is a little too high into each others' arms, simply trusting we wouldn't be dropped. Once our work day ended, we spent hours running around the field playing frisbee until the sky turned red and we got called in for dinner. After dinner, we were assigned cleaning duty and Ian and I had "mop wars" to see who could cover the most hallway the fastest. We ran down the halls, seeing how far we could slide before we fell. I laughed so hard I think it made me drunk. After duty, we played manhunt under the streetlights. Wynn scraped her knee up real bad and it was bleeding all over the place. This guy Braham tripped on his way to the base and slid so hard he ripped his pants. Playing manhunt brought me to a place of nostalgia I haven't visited in a while, a place of scraped knees and giddy competition. I was smiling to myself like an idiot while hiding behind the bushes near my building. I had that very same rush of adrenaline I remember having years ago at family barbecues, when I was about to make a run for it to get to the base, which was always the big rock on Grandma and grandpa's lawn. I realized that I did grow up. I'm 22, my family lives across the country, I have my own health insurance, and I'm responsible when I need to be. I realized I've seen some monsters in my time, but I haven't let them take me down. Most importantly, I haven't forgotten.
~V
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