Movies that taught me great life lessons...

I love coming away from a movie having learned something about the world, or even something about myself. I truly believe that movies can teach us the best lessons. Here is a list of my top 3 movies which taught me valuable lessons that have impacted my life greatly.

1. About Time (R.Curtis, 2013)

We're all traveling through time, together, everyday of our lives... All we can do is do our best to relish this remarkable life.

Anybody that knows me knows how much I love About Time, but I truly value it. Like all the men in his family, Tim Lake possesses the power to travel in time. With the advice of his father, he uses his special ability to pursue his romantic interest, Mary. But, just how far will Tim go to live the perfect life?

This movie is the epitome of "living in the moment", it teaches you that there are no do overs in life, and each moment is so incredibly precious, no matter how unimportant they may feel at the time. Life is to be lived now, the good and the bad, and it is up to us to appreciate it as it can so easily be taken away from us in an instance. This film uses grief and loss in such a clever and human way and beautifully portrays death as a mere passage in a persons life, with time for grievance and upset, but if a life lived fully and happily, is one to be celebrated as opposed to be mourned.

The truth is, I now don't travel back at all, not even for a day. I just try to live everyday as if I have deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it... As if it was the full, final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.

For a while, I wished I could relive certain days or moments in my life and truly appreciate them for what they are; but this film changed my perspective on this. You have one shot at life, and it's on you to appreciate it. So, as Tim says, live everyday like you have come back to this one day to enjoy it. Appreciate every moment in this short life, and never take anything for granted.

2. The Pursuit of Happyness (G.Muccino, 2007)

Tired of Chris's professional failures, his wife decides to separate, leaving him financially broke with an unpaid internship in a brokerage firm and his son's custody to deal with. This movie is one of the realest depictions of life I have ever seen on screen. It doesn't shy away from the gritty reality of what it is like to live as a working class person in America and how everything can be taken away from you in an instant. Gardner, played by Will Smith, invests his life savings into bone-density scanners that he must sell to large health companies in order to make profit, and a wage. However, people are not convinced that these scanners are worth any money at all and Smith finds himself completely lost in life with nothing but a broken scanner and his son by his side.

This film works so well as it gives the audience such an honest look into the dark reality of what happens when life doesn't go entirely to plan. Far too often, films show dreams coming true without any obstacles or hard work, this film doesn't do that. The Pursuit of Happyness works because it shows the true side of life. That we as humans might go through a number of failures before we achieve what we want, and even when we get what we want, might even still not avoid some failures.

We see the lowest of the lows for the pair who are placed in some of the worst scenarios a parent could ever imagine, and as an audience member, you are quite clearly told that this could happen to you. Never take moments for granted, never take homes or food for granted, because, as the film shows, successful people don't always stay successful, and those facing financial hard times may just one day be your boss. Appreciate what you have now, but understand that at any point that could be taken away from you.

The future was uncertain, absolutely, and there were many hurdles, twists and turns to come, but as long as I kept moving forward, one foot in front of the other, the voices of fear and shame, the messages from those who wanted to believe that I wasn't good enough, would be stilled.

3. Inside Out (P.Docter, 2015)

I truly believe this is one of the most important movies of our generation. Eleven-year-old Riley moves to San Francisco, leaving behind her life in Minnesota. She and her five core emotions, Fear, Anger, Joy, Disgust and Sadness, struggle to cope with her new life. We like to preach as a society that caring for our mental health is so important, yet we actually don't take time to really understand what that all means. For a lot of the time "caring for our mental health" only matters if you are at your lowest, but this film says different. This film tells us that understanding our mind is so important, and appreciating the good moments and the bad moments make us who we are.

This film taught me that it's okay to feel sad, and happiness and sadness come hand in hand. It sounds extremely easy when written down or spoken aloud, but I struggle truly accepting this. Sadness, anger and fear are core emotions that we must feel in order to be human, and whilst we hope that when we look back on our lives, we are filled with joy, this just isn't the case. Sadness can lead to some incredible things; it can lead to growth, art, relationships. Sometimes we force ourselves to be so happy that we are faking our way through life. Being sad isn't a bad thing, it means you're human.

Memories are really important, especially the memories that make you happy, yet remembering moments in your life that you may want to forget isn't always the best way of handling situations - being honest and accepting that sometimes bad things happen, but if we adapt and learn, positive things will come, is a much stronger and healthier mindset to have.

I am so thankful to Disney and Pixar for creating this, and I am so thankful that a movie like this exists for the next generation of people. Talking about our mental health, our sadness or our joys are so important and we should never shy away from being completely honest and open about what's going inside our heads.

What are some movies that have you taught you invaluable life lessons?