September 28, 2005

  •                                   My Own "Before Sunrise"/"Before Sunset" Story


    The two flicks, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset were the ultimate stories of Generation X spending time in another part of the world.  They are also two stories that capture my life better (in 1995 and 2004) than any other.  I personally think that Generation Y are too much the overachievers in their early to mid-twenties who we will see burn out soon enough.  Gen X, on the other hand, had it right.  I put emphasis on the word "had."


    Without getting too much into it about HER (my real-life gf version of the Celine character), I'll talk about the atmosphere of what happened.


    In 1995, she had plans to see the world.  She wanted to see it all, to LIVE it all.  The opportunities in life were hers for the taking.  And so she lived abroad like she had dream of doing.


    In 1995, I was in Korea doing an internship.  A total waste of time in terms of work.  But back then, ANYTHING was possible.  I literally had HUGE plans to take over the corporate world (and the real world itself) and just - LIVE. 


    We both felt that life is endless and that the world was our oyster.  ANYTHING was possible.


    Cut to October 2004 in Korea.  I see her again.  We have a very limited time together.  As opposed to before, it feels like everything is rushed because we have responsibilities.  Although she's legally separated (from an abusive b*stard of a husband at that), she does have a child by him that she is raising.  Her former youthful starry-eyed enthusiasm is gone.  She's no longer the pretty young girl that all the guys flirt with (instead she's the older attractive WOMAN guys flirt with, much to her chagrin).  Her body is as well-shaped as ever, but she claims she's naturally changed after having had her baby a few years before. 


    Meanwhile, I've aged, too.  No longer cocky like in 1995.  No longer the kid people think looks like a student in junior high school (I have good genes in terms of physical aging).  This time with a full-time career and with responsibilities I take seriously.  And a body battered by one too many ten-mile races (between the years 2002 and 2005) that has left me in a state of constant fatigue.  (The impact of a couple of ten-mile races, run at a fast pace, on one's adrenal glands is no joke.)


    This time, everything ISN'T possible anymore.  Now, there's cold, hard reality.


    The third movie has yet to have come out.  If it's at all consistent with the first two, then it will come out in 2013.  But as for OUR own real story (not the movie story) things ended in October 2004.  I think she and I said our final good-byes because you see, in many ways, I am NOT like Jesse, the male character in the movie.  Or maybe I am?


    One of the major themes of the beginning part of the second movie seems to be not to leave things too much to Fate because then otherwise you live with regrets.  Take charge and MAKE stuff happen and help fate along by doing the small stuff (like exchanging phone numbers rather than waiting on fate to allow you to meet the other person in six months in another country)!  On the other hand, I am believing more and more in God's plan, too.