I have watched thousands of movies in my lifetime and I'm sure I'm going to watch thousands more.
But there are two movies that I will forever remember; movies that had such a great impact in my life that until today, they remain two of my favorites. Both are about friendship, only at different periods of one's life.
The first - Stand By Me - is a simplistic story about 4 young boys who forged a friendship for life during one summer when they went out for the adventure of their young lives. The plot is very straightforward and uncomplicated, a bunch of kids just chilling, but this one-day adventure taught them a lifetime lesson; a lesson so valuable that they brought it with them until adulthood, and eventually, death.
I was 14 years old when I watched Stand By Me, around the same age as the four protagonists in the film. And like them, I learned that when you have someone who has your back, the world is a much better place to live in. In this instance, family members don't count because it is given that they would always be there for us. The movie is a classic for me because it taught me what trust is all about; that I - and all of us - need to have faith in other human beings.
A year before that, I watched another movie that stayed with me forever. Being a teenager at that point in time, the world was a confusing place. Life was good and yet it was bad and it was filled with happiness and sadness; triumph and losses; pains and joys; and other pertinent opposite feelings and thoughts.
Before Reality Bites came out in 1994, there was another one that told the story of a group of fresh graduates coping with the realities of the real world. While Reality Bites is more popular and more relevant to me, being a fresh graduate myself at that time, the 1985 released made a bigger impact on me because at the age of 13, it made me realize that the world is not as rosy as we are made to believe, even if we have great academic qualifications.
So, when the movie that catapulted Winona Ryder (isn't she just cute?) and Ethan Hawkes to Hollywood stardom was released, I was already prepared for the grim realization that a degree is not enough to make it in the real world.
And I have the movie St. Elmo's Fire to thank for this preparedness...
St. Elmo's Fire is a a poignant story about 6 college friends who found it tough to adjust to adulthood in the real world; it was a story of 6 individuals with their own obsessions and thoughts of what life and love is all about.
They also came to realize that life beyond college is no easy task and it takes more than a college degree to have a meaningful life. And it also made me realize what it feels to be in-love and things we're prepared to do and not do for love...
St. Elmo's Fire prepared me for the bitterness of life or at least it prepared me for the realization that life is not as easy as it was portrayed to be. And because of a movie I watched over 30 years ago, I was ready to face the world when it was time to...
I have been having difficult times lately as y'all know but last night, as my small baby and I bummed yet again in front of the TV, HBO showed St Elmo's Fire and it dawned on me that I have been whining too much about my life! Wasn't I supposed to be prepared to expect the harsh reality if life?
Yes I was, but I must have seemed to forget about it.
Until I watched one of my favorite movies again last night...
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