As a child, the last thing I wanted to do was watch a movie. Staring at a screen for two hours feigned no appeal to me despite living in an household that reveled in all sorts of cinema.
This changed this winter break when I decided to watch The Virgin Suicides. Though I expected my eyes to roll back in boredom, they were glued to the screen, nearly overflowing with tears.
I went on to watch four more movies over break, all similarly capturing my attention. These ranged from romantic comedies to coming of age movies.
After the new year, I was talking to my friends about my winter break movie spree, and they all pointed me toward Letterboxd, where other movie buffs would log all of the movies they watched, giving them various ratings. Since the first week of January, I have been logging every movie I watched, giving them ratings as I went along.
This turned into a pattern of capping my week by watching a movie every Saturday, either brand new or rewatched thousands of times. These weekly movie binges are often accompanied with stringing beaded bracelets or snacking on popcorn.
Accompanying myself with movies again reminded me of the refuge of turning my brain off from real life for two hours and just focusing on characters gliding across the screen. Unlike TV shows that act as a temporary reprieve in the middle of schoolwork, the longformity of movies makes it its own experience in my day.
My weekly movie tradition have reminded me of previous comfort movies such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, La La Land and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It has also given me a chance to rewatch childhood favorites such as the Barbie movie series.
Not only did watching a movie every week help me wind down after a week of long pages of notes, quizzes and deadlines, it also reconnected me with my love of pop culture and art, a hobby that I thought would fade away with junior year stresses.
For me, movies serve as a small thing I knew would be constant in a life where everything was uncertain. Even though I had no idea what grade I would get on a test, or whether an unresponsive source would finally email me back for a feature, I knew I would be able to go to my media room at the end of the week to watch the final movie in the Before Sunrise trilogy.
While many, myself included, considered junior year of high school to be emotionally and physically draining, this tradition kept me grounded, and kept me motivated to continue working hard throughout the week, as I thought it would make the movie that much better.
Having an escape from real life, whether it be hanging out with your friends, doing your favorite hobby or curling up in your bed to watch a new romantic comedy, can be a great way to unwind, and to increase your well being despite a busy workload. Remember to connect with the things you love to bring comfort to a tensing lifestyle.
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