You've Done It Again, Pixar!

I'm not a sappy person.  Really, it's true.  I can count on one finger the number of times I actually cried.  I'm just not one to shed tears much.

But man, the creative minds at Pixar are the only ones that can make me bawl like a baby.  Before you continue to read this, there's a major SPOILER ALERT for the movie Inside Out, so if you're haven't seen it, and are planning on doing so, don't read this post just yet.

You're like, "Seriously, Lin?  A child's movie?"  But you all know how Pixar can make any of you cry.  Toy Story 3 had grown men cry.  Why not this one?  The thing about this movie was that I was not expecting it to be so emotional.  I should've known though, all Pixar movies tug at your heartstrings.  For me, the moment happened when Bing Bong said his last few words, "Take her to the moon for me, will ya?" I held it together for about a minute, then completely lost it when the little girl next to me asked her mother what happened, and her mother couldn't answer her because she was a ball of emotions herself.

It was so sad.  Yes, sad for the obvious reasons, that Bing Bong vanished because Riley had grown up and forgotten him, so he's gone (I'm getting emotional even as I'm typing this).  But for me it was also sad because he wanted to save Riley so badly that he sacrificed himself, and even as he was vanishing, he was still rooting for Riley, the very person who is forgetting him.

This specifically tugs at my heartstrings because I now have a little girl of my own.  And she's at the age where she's happy every day, goofy, wacky, curious, and has a big heart filled with wonder and love.  No complicated emotions, just pure and simple joy.  Ever since I watched that movie yesterday, every time I look at my daughter, and how beautiful and wonderful and yummy she is, I feel sad.  Sad that she's growing up, that every day she gets a little older.  All that childhood naïveté will be chipped away little by little, as each year, day, or even seconds go by.

Everyone says, cherish each moment.  You can't get your children's childhood back.  And in the hustle and bustle of our every day lives, we ignore this advice.  There are so many memes that say things like, "Cherish every moment, they say...but can I just get one moment of peace?!?"  I mean, we all feel that way, but man, that piece of advice has never hit me so hard as it had this weekend.  I literally just sat on the couch today and watched my beautiful little girl play with her stickers then sing and dance to Let It Go for the millionth time. I found her so darn cute, I realized I hadn't sat down with her like this for so long and just watched her do her thing.  It was like, I wanted to take it all in, observe and breath in every piece of her, and preserve that innocence for as long as I can, even if it's in my own mind.

So, cherish every moment with your children!  They really do grow up too fast.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go cry my eyes raw at Bing Bong's demise.

xoxo,
Lin