Life In A Year
The essence of every movie or book isn’t just to entertain but to educate and enlighten us. Even though the enlightenment might be antagonistic to the purpose of the movie or book, it has triggered a response. Indoctrination is possible through the power of narratives. Every story has a profound influence on those it’s shared with whether consciously or subconsciously. What are the insights I have gotten from Life In A Year?
Oftentimes we confuse desire, infatuation or even obsession as love. It's easy to confuse them as the difference can sometimes be minute and only evident in intentions and actions over a period of time. Infatuation is short-lived and usually fierce while it lasts. Love is pure, beautiful and a very scarce emotion. When you find a person you're willing to stay with regardless of all odds, someone who makes you a better version of yourself or helps you to grow almost effortlessly, you might just have found love. Love is not often reciprocated and it's unconditional. Obsession is toxic and fiery. It's an unhealthy attachment to someone for unexplainable reasons. The difference between all these emotions is not usually evident to an observer especially one in love with the other person. One of the major themes in Life In A Year is love.
When I first saw the movie, it felt almost stupid that a teenager trying to find his identity would jeopardize his future for a live full of uncertainties. The truth is that no one is too old or young to find love. It might seem ridiculous to an adult who knows that a human being may love more than five times in his/her lifetime. The truth of that fact does not negate the fact that you may meet your only love at a young age and that's not nothing to be scared of. Love is an impossible emotion and it transcends every limitation. However, what's our lives without friends to help us strengthen the love.
Friendship unlike romantic relationship is an underrated human relationship. Having fiends that'll help you through every struggle even when they do not share your passion can be underrated. Life In A Year showed that even though our individual journey is different, our friends can make it easier by providing support and love. They might be even more ignorant and oblivious of your journey more than you are - which is normal considering the fact that's YOUR life. What matters is that you can find succor even though your destinations are different. You should really be that kind of friend to others and yourself regardless of their expectations from you. Your friends have their own opinions of you like everyone else but it doesn't taint the love.
Everyone has a vision of who they want you to be based on their perceptions of you. It's usually a projection of their personal fears or desires. If you lack self-awareness or self-acceptance, you become dependent and their vision becomes yours by default. Codependency is usually evident in close relationships especially amidst close-knit families. It can be very toxic for self expression and optimum mental health. Sometimes we're too scared to accept ourselves for who we are or take responsibility for our thoughts and actions. In some cases, we are unwilling to take the required steps to achieving our goals. When this happens, a push is helpful but only in the direction we truly want to go. This push takes a great amount of trust. It was easy to see how Daryln's father groomed him for a dream that was not his and how Isabella helped him to see how his father's love for him might have prevented him from seeing his own dreams and his ability to achieve them.
Happily ever after is not a destination. And they lived happily ever after is not the end of a real life story. Neither love nor life is a destination ; happiness is definitely not a end result. We can all live happily while fighting our battles. It doesn't really have to make sense and the road map might lack consistent clarity. Like Isabella said, " the only way to know about life is by living." The act of taking things a step at a time knowing fully well that things might not turn out the way you had hoped but you had loved and lived fully with no restraints is the best gift anyone can give themself. As long we live happily even without the ever after in sight, it would be worth it. So my dear, one more before time runs out ?
One of our intellectual flaws as humans would be our inaccurate perception of time. Despite the inventions of various tools to measure time, we do not have an understanding of the proper utilization of time. We underestimate what's achievable in a short period of time and overestimate what is in a long period of time. In actual fact, our definition of period of time is erroneous. False positives, believing we can achieve things we cannot in a stipulated time, and false negative - failing to see the ability to achieve certain goals in a time space. It should come as no surprise that efficient time management is a myth for most people afterall you can not possess proper utilization of a tool you do not understand. The threat of death by a near death experience or the diagnosis shouldn't be the basis for living life fully. We should all ask ourselves "What is a lifetime? If a lifetime was a year, what would I spend it doing? Who would I spend it with? What am I doing right now?
