Into the Wild

During my time in Alaska, I knew one thing for sure: I’d go home and rewatch the movie Into the Wild. The whole idea of Alaska had stemmed from that movie. Plus, I was hoping to rediscover some new answers about my own journey.

It took less than five minutes to revisit the places we had seen in Alaska. The snowcapped mountains, the Yukon River, white painting-esque landscapes with alpine trees, even the famous Alaskan train (although the one we saw was abandoned). Then flows the story about a boy who leaves society to search for his answers. This was my third time watching this movie, and each time my take reflects my own stage in life. When I watched it the first time, it was just another travel adventure movie. The second time, I could feel his pain a little. And today, I could only relate to my own experiences of running away. Running away from what, you may ask?

One important theme from the movie is about society: our society, greed, and our wants and needs. While it’s easy to draw the need and want boundary on paper, it’s often harder in real life. To filter our needs from wants, or to accept our needs to be wants. For instance, what about our dreams and aspirations? Do we actually need them? Or are they just our wants? And if you delve deeper: Are they even our dreams? This is the question that questions the whole act of running. Everything you call society — or everything you’re running away from — is in you. Maybe we run away for those brief moments when the mind stops thinking. The few moments of escape from whatever we are running away from.

Then there’s the theme of happiness the movie talks about, or ends with. “Happiness is only real when shared.” I have felt this on my own solo trips many times. And yet we travel on our own, and for one simple reason. There’s more to life than happiness. And no, I am not just talking about those mind-stopping moments. But moments of self-reflection — however painful at times — that make you see yourself in a film. Then there’s peace. The ultimate moment that you encounter often in solitude. Happiness or peace: have you ever wondered which one you want (or need?) more? I know I’d have a difficult time choosing. The easy answer is to say balance is the key, except it’s the hardest thing in the world to find that right balance. So, maybe the whole act of living is finding that balance through experiences and struggles, reunions and escapes, however elusive it may be.

As I sit at my own crossroads, with more questions than answers (and as confused as always), I hope to rewatch Into the Wild again in a few years and revisit this piece.