This movie has been on my mind a lot recently. I believe that the film captures something, something not only about youth, but about life. The crux of the film, and my feelings on how it relates to the human condition, (and consequently, why it is so timeless), is that it is about an ending and a beginning. Its not about being paddled on the ass by a young Ben Affleck. It is about those few times in our lives where we live out such artificial ending/beginning situations; high school, as the film explores, and the end of university as two pretty common ones. I also experienced this in my, well, numerous times leaving Korea, and I have been going through this ending/beginning experience of late. There is a conscious effort to say goodbye to certain people, to make far-fetched, good intentioned, hopefully realized plans of seeing each other again, to continue having this person in my life, beyond the realm of facebook - it is a goodbye, but also a see you again.
There is also, let's call it a semi-conscious effort, to not say goodbye to some, understanding that there no continuation of our common narrative. Sometimes this split happens naturally - people walk out of class together in the same ways that hey have always done, go for brunch the next morning with the same group of friends, go to different parties - the lines have always been drawn, but this ending comes with an understanding that our lives will no longer occupy the same orbit. And sometimes it doesn't happen naturally at all.
It would be interesting to map this trajectory of knowing people - I suspect there would be numerous peaks and valleys - for myself anyway. (I am picturing a graph in my head, stretching in 3D over time and place, with lines running thick and thin, color-coded, intertwining, rising, falling - a map of relationships, of my life).
But what makes these endings bearable, to endure the severing of human contact that comes with exiting a place that has become a part of me, is the joy and possibility that I find in the beginnings. The enter a place fresh, to learn not only names and faces but language, foods, smells, customs. To grow and to learn about new places in the world and new parts of myself. The excitement of the exit.
Obviously these things are not so clean cut - a much as I pretend to be stoic about things (and as much as I pull off the stoicism) - there is a genuine sadness in saying goodbye, just as there is a genuine sense of trepidation amid the excitement of the beginning. These emotions are manifested in numerous ways, and although my meta-cognitive skills are getting better, I still need to work out exactly how I do things.
I have some ideas.
I say truths in jest.
I'm intentionally cryptic.
