Its a Wonderful Life

On Christmas Eve, my dad and I watched the legendary film, Its A Wonderful Life. The film poignantly captures how I feel about being home from college. George Bailey and I experienced a temporary disconnection from our home, friends, family, and ourselves. Although I was not on the brink of suicide, I believe I had a guardian angel that shed some light on dark times during the unfamiliarity of college. My guardian angel, Clarence, came in many forms: The two best friends I made at UPS, Amy and Jaimie, the classes, the dorm life, and college life in general. When I returned home, the knowledge I gained from my first semester transformed into intense gratitude and joy. The ending of Its A Wonderful Life is the perfect representation of my feelings in this moment. I feel great joy and bliss every time I look outside my window, or take a stroll through the once mundane-town I live in. A professor of mine told me that the closer we are to destruction, the closer we are to creation. Similarly, the closer we are to death, the closer we are to life. The moment George decides to end his life, is also the moment when he is given the chance to really live. When I left everything behind, metaphorically buried my past behind, I created a bright future for myself. This is human growth at its finest. College forced me to abandon everything I knew in order to gain significant emotional and intellectual insight and knowledge. Now when I see the town I wished to erase from the map, I see the beauty it possessed all along. I only reached this truth by removing myself from the area. Clarence removes George from town, and humanity to teach him this valuable lesson. As corny as this sounds, everything around me looks like a scenic painting. The world really is a beautiful place if you choose to admire its beauty. People seem  desperate to escape their surroundings, but instead of dedicating time wishing to escape, people should just stop, take a breath and absorb the beauty that is right in front of them. I believe the reason why people are desperate to flee their so-called mundane lives is that they haven't reached a  place of acceptance and gratitude. The reason people desire to run away from certain parts of their lives is that they haven't accepted those parts for what they are. Instead of confronting the least idealistic parts of their lives, people choose to cover them up or run away from them. My high school English teacher, and great mentor, taught me that the best way to end suffering is to confront those less-idealistic parts of your life and accept them for what they are. Once people accept all of the parts of their life, they can feel great gratitude for everything they do and don't have. Right now, I have accepted that I'm not the most talented,  prettiest or smartest girl on the block, but I recognize that I have amazing family and friends that love me for exactly who I am. Love. That's all anybody needs. Life really is wonderful when we learn to love our lives and world for exactly what they are.
2011 is rapidly approaching; I hope the world can move towards heightened awareness and compassion.

Is anybody reading this?
Feel free to comment! I would love to hear some thoughts.
Happy Holidays!