The Impact Of Movies

Yesterday I went to see Lion. I walked out of that theater a changed person. I had a stark realization that every single person I come in contact with has a story. Even the peope we don't particularly like are people with a story. In the film a little boy gets lost after he fell asleep on a train platfom. He later ends up in an orphanage and is then adopted by an Australian couple. Then for 25 years he lived a really good life until he ran into a favorite Indian snack at a friends party. This marked the beginning of his Google Maps fueled journey to find his family that had been looking for him too. I won't spoil the rest for you guys. Dev Patel did an amazng job in this film.  

I have said this before but movies have a huge impact on me. They make me feel something or change my pespective on the world. Lion made my heart race. Other movies made me emotional and contemplate my own life. I think Youtube has a similar effect. Films and videos both take me away from my own world for a few short hours and make me experience things that I otherwise may never see in my lifetime.

Thanks for reading and I will see you in my next post.

Writing Prompt #1

Describe what it would be like if your favorite book character lived next door to you.

My favorite male book character is Robert Langdon from Dan Browns books. He is a famous symbologist and professor of symbology.

I imagine that if he lived next door I would pop in for a cup of tea and sit and talk about a symbol I found somewhere or a cipher I want to write. I can picture his house. Shelves full of books, and various historical artifacts everywhere. His desk is piled over with papers and texts. His laptop is drowning in a river of projects, assignments and essays that he was grading or writing.

My favorite female book character is Louisa Clark from Jojo Moyes books Me Before You and After You. She took care of a quadriplegic man and ended up falling in love with him.

I imagine that she has flowers all over her front steps. She is a bright and bubbly personality with eccentric clothing choices. I can see us having coffee at a cafe and laughing really hard. I can see us hanging out at her house for her birthday and her freaking out over something or other. Her reactions to things put a smile on my face and I imagine she would be a really sweet neighbor to have.

I was going to list Anastasia Steele from 50 Shades but I think her situation is really different than anyone ever expected. I would say I like her in the last couple books of the series. She is a working woman with a super rich now husband. I can't imagine ever having the income to live any where near her and Christian Grey. I can picture the two of us meeting for coffee outside her office building and discussing some new, up-and-coming author who's manuscript landed on her desk.

Anyways the next prompt will be written when I feel up to it. Lemme kick this cold first.

- Melody

New Year...New Job!

Ok so this year has blown my mind so far. I will make this short since I have to be up a little early tomorrow.

Last year my life was headed down hill very fast and I was very discouraged. A little over a week into the new year, I had been in a car accident which was the most unfair thing because the other driver was at fault but walked away with just a scratch on their car. My car took all the force (standing vehicle hit by another vehicle) and was totaled. My Lucy was gone. I had to drive rentals for a couple months. Then I got Carolinka but now I have car payments. I took the bad with the good and went with it.

Then I found a job as a security guard. I kind of enjoyed it but the hours were crazy. I missed out on so much and at times it made me really upset. Especially around the holidays. Just a few days before Christmas my dad fell off a roof and hurt his back. Thank God he is ok now.  Then I spent New Years in a tiny little guard shack. Thankfully my parents Skyped in but still I was beyond upset about that. It was a really terrible year.

Here comes 2017. A couple weeks in I got a Facebook message from a friend in response to my pleas for a job. She said her old company was hiring and she could talk to the Manager. I agreed to let her put in a referral. I also put in about 10 other applications. In addition to the friend, 2 other applications showed promise. All 3 called me up and I considered my options. the first offered part time 3 days a week. The second offered a temp position but only for 3 months. And the last one offered full time temp to hire. The last option was the least risky. I decided to throw myself into the third option. Within a week of the interviews, I started working at a Securities Firm.

I am so mind blown right now. It is surreal to think that I do longer have to think about reports, patrols, or bar codes. I don't have to freeze in a tiny little building on a Saturday night. "Dobby is free!!!!" At the end of this week, I have my first weekend off in a year. I don't even know what to do with myself. I think I might go to the movies to see a special screening of Princess Bride and maybe record some videos for my Youtube channel.

I am so happy right now.
Humble but confident.

200 Writing Prompts Project

Ok so this is something I always wanted to do in my own time. I have this neat little book of writing prompts. There are 200 of them. If I do 2 each day that I want to write something then it would take me approximately 4 months to complete. If they are short, I might do more. I think this exercise will cause me to dig deep within. This is also an excellent way to get to know me.

I will put in my best efforts to stick to this.

Why do I love going to the movies?

I just went to see The Space Between Us. I absolutely loved it. Asa Butterfield did a great job portraying a teen named Gardner Elliot that was born and grew up on Mars. Britt Robertson played his Earthling friend turn love interest named Tulsa. Sadly he can't survive in Earth's atmosphere and has to go back to Mars but something tells me that Tulsa will go there to be with him in the future based on the fact that she was adopted by a retired Astronaut and was in the NASA Training program at the end of the film.

When I walked out of the theater I got to thinking about why I love movies so much. To put it simply: Movies make me feel something. My world is pretty lonely. I have a few friends but everyone is busy with their lives and sometimes I don't see my best friend for months at a time. I completely understand. Over the last year I have kept busy too. I also didn't have weekends off. So I missed the chances to hang out with my friends.

Movies tell a story in a very real way. Especially when a good actor is in the movie. In this particular movie, I felt butterflies when Gardner kissed Tulsa for the first time. That is just one example when I really felt a connection to the characters and what they were feeling. In other movies I have felt a stronger connection to a character on a personal level. A good example of this is with Zootopia's Judy Hopps. I related to everything she felt and went through in the movie. I like to say that Zootopia is the story of my life in a way.

Movies are like small adventures that take you away to another world for a couple hours.
So I guess.... movies make my life a little less lonely.