INTO THE WILD

I’ve watched “Into the Wild” awhile ago, an American Indie film directed by Sean Penn inspired by a true story. The movie actually is all about a fresh college graduate, played by Emile Hirsch (the guy in Girl Next Door) who just decided to walk away from his family and went into the Alaska wild without bringing with him money and food just himself and his stuffs. He is determined to take an adventure on his own. He practically did not want his family to know his whereabouts, that’s why he didn’t make any call nor leave any mark for them to have any information on him. Sounds rebellious, but the determination and goal he has could only prove otherwise. Sounds selfish for everything he has done just caused pain and anxiety to his family. But just a thought, what if he decided to separate himself with the life he had before he started his adventure only to figure what really is important in this fuckin' life. Well try to watch the film and be the judge.

After watching the movie, I’ve come to realized that there’s only one thing which a person needs to be happy, and it’s FREEDOM. Freedom to experience what this life has to offer. As what Chris (Alex) in the movie aptly put it, ‘the core of man’s spirit comes from new experiences. Joy does not come principally from human relationships. God places it in all around us, it’s in everything we can experience. People just need to change the way to look at those things..’

I wonder how I’ve survived the deprivation I have from this so called freedom. Self-imposed or not, depriving ourselves with the freedom to experience life will just make us regret a lot of things in the long run. I know I have lots of issues with my family and other people but what the heck am I doing? Why do I keep on letting those issues restrain me from doing what I want to do? Why do we keep ourselves be controlled by the expectations of other people, of the society? Why do we settle for something which we cannot even honestly say we're absolutely happy? I am studying Law, and under the Constitution, a citizen has been granted a lot of freedoms by the State, and no one could ever deprive one of those without due process of law. So if the State protects the enshrined freedoms of a citizen, who am I or any person to deprive myself of my freedoms. Well, I think one need not have a brain to say that every human being has the right to be happy. The freedom to get happy. The freedom to experience life to get happy. And I’ve come to realized that the difficulty in not getting happy arises when we don’t have this freedom. We need to free ourselves from whatever or whoever is taking away the very reason of our existence, to be happy.

Going back to the movie ‘Into the Wild’, I was inspired by one of the lines in the book Chris(Alex) was reading during the time he’s in the woods, which was actually highlighted in the film, basically because of his experiences with good people he met during his adventure. How lucky he was to meet those people along the way especially one Ron, an old man who actually thought of adopting him. The particular line says that “one could be happy when he becomes useful to people to whom it is easy to do good and who are not accustomed to have it done to them.”

I cannot agree more with that idea of happiness. Whoever the writer of that book was brilliant. Now I ask myself, when was the last time I did something useful to others and felt good about it. Yes, we do favors to others, but have we thought about whether the person for whom we did something is not accustomed on being it done for them. When was the last time we felt good about doing something useful to others?

Truly, the movie 'Into the Wild' made a huge impact on me, and I am so much attached to Chris' character and I can relate to some of his ideals and feelings to his family and the society.

I'd like to end this post with one of Chris' lines that made me had goosebumps: "HAPPINESS, ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED"

By the way I saw this on the net, one of Chris McCandless' most interesting quotes which comes from a letter he had written to a friend he had made while hitchhiking:

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

For more info on the movie 'Into the Wild', here's the official website or you can check imdb.com.