"You gotta hear this one song. It'll change your life, I swear."

I think The Awakening may have changed my life. That, and Garden State. What an amazing film. Lately, life is so entirely complicated and unpredictable; I've been realizing that I can't simply stay stuck. There's no point in settling if you're truly unhappy.

As I feverously flipped through the pages of The Awakening, I couldn't help but feel connected to Edna--the protagonist of Kate Chopin's novel. When a book does that to me, I can't help but see it to be a sign. And lately, I cannot ignore "the signs." But what happens when you misread the signs? I feel as though I may have been reading between the lines a bit too much lately with my personal life and other such people in it. Yet when reading Chopin's book, I can't help but think to myself that these so called signs are real. Then again, (***spoiler alert** do not read on if you plan to read The Awakening!) poor Edna kills herself at the end when things don't go her way with the dashing Robert! Needless to say, I slammed that book shut with such disappointment that I felt the need to toss it into the Merrimack River.

But what does this tell me? Yes, Edna gained immense independence from her "awakening." She learned to go after what truly made her happy. She learned to finally love. But in the same breath, she wasn't entirely independent. She still craved that sense of companionship and intimacy. And she still felt incomplete without Robert. Um...ew. No woman should feel incomplete when without a man. But as human beings, we can't help but crave that kind of companionship.

I suppose you could say that Garden State is quite the opposite of The Awakening. Here, Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) is living his life independently--to the extent of it being unhealthy since he has completely shut off from everyone else. Then the charming and free-spirited Sam (Natalie Portman) comes along and snaps him out of his emo-like, lithium induced trance. It's not your average, cliche flick. There's a subliminal message there that is hard to ignore. OK, well maybe it's not so subliminal then. Life must be indulged in wholeheartedly. If we don't allow ourselves to feel the good and the bad, we simply go numb. And if we're numb, how will be able to experience life and all it's potential?

...oh and the Garden State soundtrack is amazing.

Shut up, Jane Austen.

I was a fan of Pride and Prejudice. I even liked the first half of Persuasion. But the more I read an Austen novel, the more I see how trivial these people's lifestyles really were. Did you really have nothing better to do than to gossip, attempt love matches, and argue over who had a better pearl necklace? It's sickening to think of how these people lived. Then I look at how we live today, barely making time to breathe, constantly on the go, with little time to indulge in leisure. Well, that's just as vile quite frankly.

People need to make time to enjoy the finer things in life. And by finer, I don't mean pearl necklaces and expensive getaways to Bath, England. I mean indulging in your own country's beauty as John Muir would strongly advocate for. Exploring your own country, hiking a mountain, driving the Pacific Coast, swimming in the Great Lakes, or simply taking a walk through your neighborhood, taking in the beauty of the environment around you. Picking up a good book, just to read for your own sake. Going out to eat at a restaurant you would normally never go to--experiencing new tastes. Discovering new music, finding a new favorite band, going to concerts, experiencing the mind altering state of live music.

No matter what the reason or excuse, people should find time to sit back and breathe. Life is far too short to run through it holding your breath, trying to get to that class or meeting on time while you eat your lunch that you just picked up through the drive thru window while breaking up with your boyfriend on his voicemail because you felt as though you no longer had time for a relationship anymore.

After diving into some life changing experiences recently, I have also realized this about life. As I sit here, overwhelmed with school work, I've come to the conclusion, that there is no point to stress about it. It will get done when it does. At this very moment, I'm doing something that I want to be doing. Without that sense of relief and enjoyment in life, what is the point of it?

Perhaps that is what Jane Austen was attempting to get across in her novels. Simply indulging in meaningless activities is apart of life. Though I know I would not enjoy much of her snobbish activities, I do agree with the overall concept of them. You need that extra time to simply take a long walk along the beach for no reason whatsoever besides that you simply wanted to. Although I am not condoning Austen's obsession with social classes, marriage, and gossiping, snobby women, I do like the cynical tone in her novels, giving them that extra flare of life and bold opinion.