With Honor

With Honors came out when I was 14 and I remember seeing it in the theater and being very moved by it. I bought the soundtrack and I also remember carrying around a small bag of stones for all my “important memories”.  Silly right? Looking back, nothing of importance had even happened yet that would have merited being including in my life bag, but hindsight is 20/20.

I hadn’t watched the movie in a long time and it was nice to see it again as an adult. I don’t know if the lessons were more impactful, but I saw them with the lens of experience this time.

I still cried when Simon dies. I still got goose bumps when Monty read his obituary at the grave site. He may not have graduated with honors, but he learned how to live with honor.

The movie is a great lesson in character and dynamics. All of the roommates are three-dimensional and we learn just as much from the subtext of their interactions as we do from the dialogue. That is something that film can do that is difficult in books. In a movie, we can see longing and disgust. In a novel, we have to be creative about how to show those emotions in our characters.

In my own life, I always am trying to live with honor. It isn’t always easy, especially when I’m feeling slighted, but I feel I have good, honest character most of my days. I’m in a holding pattern in my own life right now, like Monty, I’m fighting for something I believe in. However it shakes down, I will keep my head up and keep living with honor.

I have been working with my voice journal and that is proving to be enlightening and inspiring. This week, I’ve also been inspired to go back to a wip that I had shelved. I think I am going to dive back into that as I continue to court the characters for this other series.