You’re Not Helpless: Insights From a Mexican Film

By Andrea Diaz-Moreno on September 16, 2014
“Casi Treinta”

Image via reconoce.mx

After finishing my second year of college, I spent most of this summer with my family in Mexico. During one of our weekend family outings, we  decided to go to the movies and came across a Mexican comedy  film called   Casi Treinta (Almost Thirty).

Casi Treinta focuses around  the live of  Emilio, a young man approaching his thirties who left his hometown in Sonora to pursuit a high paying corporate career in  the city of Distrito Federal. When he becomes involved with Cristina, a high school senior who dreams of becoming a  professional dancer, he is reminded  of his childhood dream of becoming a writer. Cristina encourages him to start writing again and to pursuit his dream,  however,  Emilio is unable to focus on both his writing and his demanding work schedule, opting to gather his focus  back on his corporate job after he’s offered a big promotion.

The rest of the movie follows his growing frustration and inner conflict  between the comforts his job has provided him and the fact that he was walking away from his one true passion. After many years, he visits his hometown to attend his best friend’s wedding  and reunites with his other three childhood best friends, Agri, Sid, and Rey, who all find themselves in similar frustrating situations. After talking about their current life situations, they start to debate whether or not to take the last chance they have to pursue their dreams and goals, and to finally make the significant changes in their lives that they’ve been too afraid to make before.

Overall, the movie did a great job in portraying the many reasons why a person might not go after what they want. I found Emilio’s pursuit of a high paying job over his passion to be the most fitting and relevant to many college students today. Although I wouldn’t know what it is like to take this route, I can only imagine the weight of time starts to add up as the years go by.

Emilio and his friends decided that they will not enter their thirties making the same mistakes they made in their twenties, and that important changes needed to be made in order for them to live the lives they actually wanted.

 I greatly admire the characters’ bravery, as that’s probably a decision many people don’t decide to make. While watching this movie, I thought that perhaps a person didn’t have to wait to be  thirty and highly frustrated to make such important changes. Maybe the process can start even sooner. Maybe the “Almost Thirty” can actually be the “Almost Twenty” or “Almost Twenty-Three”.

I can assure you that in their twenties almost everyone is completely lost, myself included, but I think it’s a very important time to consider the type of changes that need to be made in your life as you transition into adulthood.

Emilio, Agri, Sid and Rey recognized that following their dreams was a big risk and a big step out of their comfort zones. All those years they developed habits that made them stay in a position that did not contribute to making their goals a reality.

Although the movie focuses on following yours dreams and passions, I believe there’s something more to that cliché phrase that could ultimately apply to other areas in life.

So here’s a little something I propose to you, to the incoming freshmen, transfer students, current students, and to myself:

Perhaps you’re lost and you don’t know the answers to many things that should come in insights, perhaps you don’t even know what you want to study. And that’s okay, and it’s okay to be confused and lost, but know that you’re not helpless.

Rather than forcing yourself to find out things that more than likely will become clear you to you by themselves, develop a goal oriented mentality in which you focus on what decisions and changes to make that will take you closer to your goal. Make lists, think about the short-term steps that will take you to the long-term and your ultimate goal. Ask for help from professors, older students, employers, people with more life experience. Do your research, plan accordingly, and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.

So whether you follow your dreams or whether you make Emilio’s choice and postpone your them until later, remember that it all comes down to decisions and changes, and the more you become accustomed to that, the easier it’ll be for you say, “This is what I really want, and this is what I’m going to do to get itwithout second-guessing yourself. You’ll be saving yourself a lot of time.

Feel the fear, but don’t be afraid. You might be lost and confused, but remember, you’re not helpless.

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