Thursday, July 8, 2010

Childhood

Today was one of my favorite kind of days - I got to curl up on my couch reading while I listened to the rain falling outside. I finally made it out to the library today. I've been promising myself for days that I would go to get more books, but something always seemed to get in the way. So now I have a fresh supply of books to get me through the next couple of weeks.

I also went to see "Toy Story 3" today and it was amazing! It was sweet, brought up a lot of memories and was consistently funny. I even teared up a couple of times. Definitely the best movie I've seen this year. When my friends and I first heard they were making a third "Toy Story," we all said that the plot was going to revolve around Andy going off to college. We were right, along with every other person making a guess about what the movie was going to be about. The story hit close to home - the first "Toy Story" came out when I was a kid and now with the current one I've just graduated from college. It feels a little like my generation and I grew up with Andy. We remember playing with our toys as children, creating elaborate story lines and acting them out with those toys. Then we get older and stop playing with them, abandoning them in toy boxes and under our beds. Sometimes we gave them away or, occasionally, threw them away. Finally, we're 18 and going off to college and leaving those toys behind.

If you haven't seen the movie yet and want to, skip over the next couple of sentences.

At the end of the movie, Andy gives his toys to Bonnie and spends some time with her playing with them like he used to when he was younger. When he leaves, he asks her to take good care of them because they are very special. I loved this, the way the movie ended because it started the cycle all over again for the toys. They were able to spark another child's imagination and give them some great memories. It made me wonder about all of my old toys that I gave away. Did another little girl or boy have as much fun with them as I did? Did they create new adventures for the toys to go on? I miss those toys a little bit from time to time but giving up childhood playthings is a part of growing up.

I think sometimes we try to grow up too quickly. As children, we look at our parents, aunts and uncles and we can't wait to be like them. We're asked what do we want to be when we grow up, constantly being influenced to look towards the future. Maybe sometimes we forgot to be a kid. Now that we're adults, or at least considered adults, we every so often wish for those moments where nothing in the world matters but the time we have to play or the nap we get to take. A couple of my friends like to joke that nap time is wasted on preschoolers - why not just let them play all day, so that when their parents come to get them, they are completely worn out? Oh well.

Anyway, "Toy Story 3" was a great movie and if you haven't seen it, you should. I'm hoping to see it on the Best Picture ballot for the next Academy Awards.