i'm not going to become emo this time round, after flooding my blog with emo-ism, haha i think its high time i change my direction. But i'm still going to talk about life, with my newfound wisdom about the world around us.
Watched a very meaningful movie this week, its called the Truman Show(see above) i have to give credit to mr randy for introducing us the movie, and the AP students who strongly recommended it to me, the title also got the interest of most of my classmates, everyone is so eager to watch it. And that understandable, bcos its really a fantastic movie, unique in its way, and provided alot of insights into our world today. It set me thinking about the life i led, and the society i live in, and made me see life in a different way.
truman burbank seemed to be an average working adult, with a wife and stable job. he has lived in the island of Seahaven his entire life. His childhood memory of losing his father during a storm out in the sea caused him to be hydrophobia and cannot travel above water. His life is just like any average person, he attended school, got into college and got a job as an insurance agent. Until one day, the radio of his car was spoiled and he began to receive something like sounds like police intercomm conversations, but this was different, it described exactly where he was, where he was going. The imba part was, there was a high pitch disturbance in the intercomm system and everyone, yes everyone, including vehicle drivers, jerked and paused movement on the busy street together! So truman begin to get suspicious, he began to feel as if the entire world is spinning around him, so he set out on an attempt to leave the island of Seahaven and explore the world outside, but faced greatly difficulties. But he perservered and hit for the open sea, braved the storm and reach the "end of the world", which was a wall painted with the colour of the sky, then he understood what has been going on his entire life.
it turned out that truman was an unwanted baby, adopted by the film crew to shoot a reality show of how a baby grows right from the womb, but it became so popular that it developed into a 24/7 nonstop LIVE broadcast of truman's life. The island of Seahaven is actually a man-made island inside a gigantic studio which could be seen on the moon. Everything in truman's world is man-made, everyone in his world are actually actors, including his parents, wife and lifelong best friend. His life was also pre-planned according to the director, to stop him from the thought of travelling out of Seahaven, he was taught from young about the difficulties and impossible-ness of exploring, television also only encouraged him to stayhome, travel agencies only had posters to discourage ppl to travel, and to stop him from going near the sea, the fil crew "designed" his father's death during a storm to create his hydrophobic syndrom. Even though Truman is a world popular character, his life is opened to everybody without his knowledge, and he has no control of his life, so we can say that he lived in a prison.
some quotes from the director of the film had deep meanings. "humans believe, without questioning, what is presented to them." this was his reply to people questioning about whether truman will run away. He was so sure that truman wouldnt bcos he believed humans accept the world it is presented to them, without stopping to question its genuienity. That is very true, many of the time u and i, we just accepts everything we're told, why should we study? why must be do well for olvls? why must be entering JC? why are we made to study all these crap in school? why are we.....etc everyone leads a similar life in today's society, we followed the "rules of thumb" of society. How do you know dy/dx of x is 1? bcos the textbooks say so! how do you know the taliban;s kidnapped the korean volunteers? bcos the media tells us so! but can books and media ever be relied on to tell the truth? in truman's world, it cannot. but how can 100% confirm that everything we are told today are the truth?
b4 truman stepped out of the studio and into the real world, the director made one last attempt to retrieve him. he talked to him using the speakers from the sky and it somewhat presented him like the creator or God-like being. Its like the God talking to his children. he told truman,"there is no less lies in the world outside then the world i've created for you! the world outside in dangerous, in my world, we have nothing to fear, becos i've created a perfect world for u!" and truthfully, is our world really free of lies as compared to truman's manmade world? At least in truman's world we know everything is fake, but in the real world we hardly can differentiate the truth from the lies. As they director watched truman left, the image of God watching Adam and Eve leave his garden of paradise, a world HE created for them. Yet God did not tell them the Truth, it is due to Adam and Eve's own initiative that they got to know the Truth. So what different has the director to God? of cos theres difference, but in terms of creating a world, ideal world for a human to live, the movie has somewhat adapted some ideas from the Bible.
Truman Show showed me how naive we humans can be sometimes, easily believing and has no control of our life. But truman also showed me how powerful an individual like us can be, we need to give in to fate or destiny, as long as we have a strong determination and will power, we can overcome anything. Like how Adam and Eve walked away from the garden of God. Like how truman braved the storm out in the sea, the director created a killer storm for truman and was sure that he will be afraid of the storm and head back, but truman was no intimidated by it and finally reached the EXIT, after being totally tortured during the storm. In life sometimes we really feel powerless infront of fate, we desire so much to do something, to achieve somethings, but we just doesnt seem to get what we want. just like me, desired so much to go NJ, but no matter what i did fate still played a trick on me. I tried to many things this year, CSS, performances, Work Shadowing...i really wanted to succeed, to turn away from all my failures, but time and time again im being defeated. Before i watched the truman show, i really hated the life im living, truthfully i really blamed life for being so unfair to me, being so cruel to me, not giving what i wanted, and i really wanted to resign to fate and stopping working towards more goals. I really though hey, this year is just not my year man...nth seem to happen the way i want it to, so just give up and stop trying yc! but now, im convinced, that i have not failed at all in my life, becos i've being always working towards my goals, but if i give up trying and working, thats when i really failed! so i learnt that all the setbacks i faced doesnt mean i failed, i just havent succed yet, and to succeed to cannot give up, giving up then is considering a failure. Learn from Truman! Brave the storm!
i also had a very funny thought, what if thw world i lived in is the same as truman's? what if everything im using now are just props, and my every move is being recorded using pin-hole camera, and everyone around me are merely actors and my life is just like a variety show? all my friends, family...are they real? or i merely accepted their reality bcos im told im the son of my parents and i believe my friends are truthful friends?what if everything in my life is out of my control, what am i gng to do about it? in the show truman's lifelong best friend turned out to be another actor who has been on the show since the age of 7, and his wife is merely acting out everything. What if my brothers are just actors? and my loved ones are not for real? haha i will nvr get the answers to those qns right now, it seems so insane to ask all those stupid questions. BUT one thing i learnt is for real, like the old saying goes, "life is like a show, a show is like a life." very true, our life is like drama, the difference is we have no NGs and retakes. from the moment we are born, we are given a mission to complete our life story, how you want ur life to turn depends on u, u are the director of ur own life story. Theres no retakes, whatever u do will not be able to undone, so all mistakes we make in our life has to be recorrect one day. Everyone around us is a actor, playing the role of himself or herself, sometime we have multiple roles, being a brother, being a student, being a sportsman etc some people flourish with the varity of life, some people are unable to juggle so many roles. We teenagers have many roles to play in our life, many of us already tired of our life, or questioning about our existence, i do get tired of life, i always question why i am in this world. my answer for now is life isnt life without tireness, and im in this world for many reasons, im here becos of love, so im here to love, and im suspose to leave this place with more love. If your life was a movie, will it make a good one? the choice is yours. be brave and perservere, up and on!
special thanks to truman burbank...for enlightening me at the lowest point of my life.
