One of my favorite scenes in movie history occurs at the end of The Graduate. (Warning: spoiler alert) After an entire movie of
two people trying to figure out how to best be together after running into a few road bumps, our hero crashes his love's wedding to
another man and, at the last moment, tries one more time to convince her to spend the rest of her life with him. Our heroine, who is
dressed in full bridal gear, turns down her fiancé and runs out the back of the church with Hero. Hero and Heroine escape the angry
and unapproving onlookers by way of jumping into a passing public bus and take a seat in the back row just
as the bus drives them off into the sunset.
What I like about this scene is that the movie doesn't stop there. Because, in real life, the movie doesn't stop there, either. The movie
carries on for just a few minutes more. The camera stays on Hero and Heroine, who sit in silence, and you can watch uncomfortably as
their major decision to defy convention and just be young together sets in. They realize that they made a choice, and they now have
to figure out how to live with it.
In those last couple of minutes, you can practically feel what they're thinking.
What will I say to my parents after this? Will they still want to talk to me?
Is the person sitting next to me really the person I want to spend forever with?
What happens after the bus reaches the end of the line?
And so on.
Real life isn't just "let's have a big adventure" and then you ride a bus into the sunset with a man who slept with your mom because
he actually loves you and it will all be better now that you've decided to be together.
In real life, there's a few more minutes that are marked with discomfort. In those minutes you're sitting with your thoughts, wondering
if your big choice was the right one. There is more responsibility than what the movies (all except The Graduate, anyway) lead
you to believe.
Don't get me wrong, I dislike how frequently young people are hesitant to chose the adventure. But I also dislike how frequently they
think the adventure will cure everything. It won't. There is responsibility that comes with adventure.
Young people are infamous for never having a heading. And why should we? We're young; we don't know what we want.
But by the time we enter the young adult world (that exciting time when we cast our first votes and legally down our first beer), most
of us are smart enough to have an idea of what we want. We need to start acting on it.
It's ok to turn down your fiancé in favor of the raggedy boy with whom you've had a bumpy past, but choosing that path won't automatically
fix everything. It takes a bit more work than that. And if you're willing to put forth the effort, nine times out of ten it's worth
it.
Have I rambled in enough directions yet? I think my point is: Adventure is great (I should know!), but using your brain a little bit and
taking responsibility of your life is seriously underrated.
