13 going on 30

 

Dear reader,

I will share with you a mini book review I wrote about a movie I watched in February along with whatever else.

13 going on 30

04 February 2021

17:47

 

It's funny how a year ago, a movie was just a movie to me. I would watch it and let everyone know I have watched it when they ask. And maybe tell them what it was about and what I thought about it. Nothing more like what happens these days. I watch a movie, even just a single part and learn a lot of things from it. A lot in how everything is happening and connecting it to my own life in different ways.

 

 I just finished watching this movie. And of course, I should mention that I have watched it in three if not 4 sittings. The first time was sometime around 3 in the morning when I was watching it. Suddenly I felt so sleepy and i had to go sleep. The next is when I was having breakfast and I had to stop afterwards because the switch got off. I had to go lift it. But still, I did not finish it. I had to go do something that I have just forgotten. That’s three. Today was the last, I was having tea and thought of getting over with it already.

 

It's about a girl who is 13 years old as you might have guessed from the title who just wants to be as glamorous as the girls in class. She sees the tv commercials and ads and all the women in magazines and wishes to be as flawless as they are. With a perfect body and chest and well, be liked by the popular girls. Truth is it doesn’t matter if she is popular or not. But she is 13 and wishes to be as sassy in her 30s. On her birthday, her friend Matt who happens to live next door brings her a gift. A doll house he has made singlehandedly for 3 weeks and wishing sparkles. He tells her it works just fine.

 

She invites the popular kids to her party just so she could join them but all they do is get the homework she had to do for them to get to the party and put a blindfold over her eyes and make her stay in the closet saying the guy most girls like in school because of looks(what else), is going to kiss her and do whatever. She waits in there expectantly but the one who comes is Matt who tells her that everyone has gone out. She was kinda dupped and got sad. Shouts at Matt and tells him she wants to be left alone. In there, she makes a wish. Repeating the words over and over. I want to be 30 and glamourous and smart. She says it thrice if am not mistake and then as she is saying it, the wishy sparkles she had opened earlier fall on her and she wakes up 30 years later.

 

She is all she ever wanted to be. Apparently that day when she was 13 turned out great for her. She became popular and wasn't friends with Matt no more. She did all she wanted and became something big at a magazine. Poise magazine.  But she wasn’t married yet. Wasn’t friends with Matt. Had a bad relationship with her parents whom she never visited and talk of being someone who just does things for popularity’s sake and for who can do it best if not me kind of thing. It's not as cool. She realizes this and tries to make things right. She tries to be a better person. She takes a look at the pictures of her from age 13 to were she is and she realises they were taken by a good photographer who happens to be Matt. She then embarks on a project for the magazine, taking pictures of people in their natural state not caring about the makeup and the like. She does it all with Matt. And she kinda falls in love with him.

 

Long story will have to be cut short. The day Matt is getting married, she tells him about how she loves him and how he is her best friend. Matt talks about how she is still getting married to the lady because they care about each other. It's sad. Matt takes out the doll house from years back and she receives it graciously. And she sits at the front porch of the house next door and then she of course starts to cry. A great pool of water covers her face and the sparkles from years back wash over her face as she wishes to be her 13 year old self. She comes back to the day of the party. This time though, she is happy the popular kids are leaving her home knowing they do things because they want to. Not that they care much and she decides to stick to Matt whom she dearly loves. They are best friends. Years later, they get married and live together. If it was a fairy tale, which I would like to believe this one is, it ends in; And they lived Happily Ever After!

 

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There is a lot I got from all this though. I can't explain the whole movie in dets. You will have to watch it. But, the time she was 30 and went to see her parents for the first time in years. She realized she made so many mistakes though she didn’t know how. I mean she was living her wish. At work too. Things weren't as pretty. So she asked her mum, Do you ever regret making all the mistakes you made? To which her mother responded, of course I do not darling. They were mine to make. They make me who I am today. If it wasn’t for them, I would be half of what I am and they are a thing to help me be better next time. Regretting would be living in the past. It's better to be in the moment. Always!

 I will admit she didn’t say all that. I added some things and maybe twisted it a bit. But it was something like that. When she asked someone else who I have forgotten about wishing they were young. The person answered that what good will that do me? I lived my years and am living these. Again, my bad. I can’t remember the exact words but it was something like that.

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Now back to me. I am 20. going on to 21 this year. And boy I don’t know how that will be like. It's something that terms me an adult. 21. and a tiny bit of info. Or should I say, FYI, it's going to be on 21 June 2021 and I will be turning 21. I have said this to so many people. It just excites me. The sound of it. I think it's really cool. But the truth is, I will never be 13 again. I don’t remember much from being 13 even. All I know is, I lived those years and good thing I still have a diary with me. Of when I was 13. and I am surprised at how funny it is. What I was writing. The things that I was most worried or concerned about. On my 13th birthday,

 

 I drew me a cake with 13 candles and wished me happy birthday. I said I was happy to be it and thanked God for having reached me then far. And then I said that but I only wonder why am not getting tall. I laughed at this. Of all the things I could have wanted or written. I was concerned about my height. I remember wanting to be older because I said older people always have what they want and they know what they are doing. Then I bet I will buy me as much candy and chocolates as I would like. And whatever else I thought then. Am 20 and I want to tell my 13 year old self that it's okay. I love that you choose to live on then. You actually eventually was okay with your height. I know this other day you said to a person shorter than you that you look short! To which she said, I am short. It got you quiet and made you think of appreciating yourself as you are. I mean, what happens when you are tall. You might wish to be short I wager.

 

I have been sensitive for as long as I can remember. When I was 13, I didn’t. I should say that I wasn’t that much interactive with people. I don’t hate people. I love them. I should make that clear. And am not an anti-social. I just love to read and write and draw and that requires me to be alone in my room. And am not depressed. I do talk with people. I try to at least. It's just that, sometimes I can be a little too self-conscious and that makes me not to do much. Am always wondering what if I do this and that. Constantly too aware of my surrounding and thinking a little bit too much about everything. Am putting an end to that. It never killed Jack and Jim to be as interactive and social as they were. It certainly won't do that to me.

 

Be happy. I will leave you with that. Be happy. Love those close to you. Appreciate them. Give out that love. Stay amazing. Live now. Don’t wish for 2099 when if God bless my soul, I will be 99. always stay in the present and...love!