Stepping outside the house
Warning: contains spoilers from the film My Old Ass
In the film My Old Ass, 18-year-old Elliot is issued an ominous warning by her Future Self to not fall in love with a boy named Chad.?
Much later in the film, Future Elliot reluctantly confesses that the reason for her warning isn’t because Chad ends up being some awful person. Quite the opposite, Chad proves to be an amazing human that brings a lot of joy into Young Elliot’s life but with one wrinkle: he dies and Future Elliot doesn’t want Young Elliot to experience the searing pain of losing him.?
Stunned but unshaken in her resolve, Young Elliot declares that she will continue to love Chad for however long they have.?
“You say that now because you’re young and dumb.”, Future Elliot tells her younger self.?
“But if you aren’t young and dumb, you’d never [expletive] be brave enough to do anything.”, Young Elliot interrupts, “If you knew how [expletive] and unfair life would be you would never leave home…”
It’s a risk to drive or fly, but we drive and fly anyways because they take us to places we want to be.?
It’s a risk to change jobs, but we change jobs anyways because we find the idea of where the change may take us exhilarating.?
The deeper the relationship, the more vulnerable we become to experiencing pain from that connection, but we pursue such relationships anyways because the flip side of investing in them is that they also create extraordinary joy.?
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These are the risks we must take on not to live, but to be able to step outside our literal and metaphorical homes and to feel alive.?
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About me:
I'm a second-generation Taiwanese American trying to find life’s greatest sources of meaning and make the most out of it