Let me take you back to the Summer of 1993.
Like most of the kids my age, I was bat-shit crazy for anything about dinosaurs and seeing Jurassic Park for the first time was the cultural equivalent of a spiritual awakening. I went into that cinema a young, impressional boy, but I came out a changed person.
That was more than twenty years ago. Since then, so much has equally shaped and affected me – as I imagine it has for you also – and the release of the latest Jurassic World film has brought this to my immediate attention.
If you haven’t already seen it, I definitely recommend you and some friends go for a fun night out, especially if you remember the first one with such fondness and reverence as I do. In the meanwhile, here’s 3 things we’ve all learned during that time.
1. Those childhood friendships don’t last forever
After watching Jurassic Park for the first time, I have vivid memories of recreating some of my favourite parts of the movie with my mates – basically ‘tag’ in the woods but with dinosaurs – and thinking to myself that these were the people I’d be friends with forever.
Fast forward two decades and I can honestly say I’m not in regular contact with any of them – and one lives two doors down the road!
2. … But they’ll always be the most understanding
It makes no difference whether you’ve not seen them in months or years, the friends you had when you were little will always be more understanding and less judgemental than the ones you make in later life.
That’s because they still remember you at your most naive, you most vulnerable – as you do them – and no matter what’s going on in your personal life right now, they will always give you the time of day and sympathetic ear like no other. Trust me.
3. You will not have everything figured out by now
Chances are you already had the rest of the life sorted when you were 6.
You were going to finish school, get that job you’ve seen somewhere in the movies – you know the one, where it never seems to encroach on the characters lives and if it does, it only makes their lives more fun and interesting – and all the trimmings that go with it.
Somewhere along the way, probably around the time you actually did finish school, you realised life doesn’t work out that way. But as a result you’ll learn new things, experience unexpected relationships and become a person you never envisaged. and isn’t that more exciting?