Things of my youth

There was a time when I was an anime fiend. For those of you not in the know, anime is the term used for Japanese animation. The reason why people go nuts over anime is that it has production value to it that rivals big budget US movies. There is a lot of stuff out there with superlative writing and direction and it's amazing stuff.

It's been a while since I've been into anime. I kind of gave it up. When you're doing the med school thing, you have to give up on some things that used to seem so important. I don't really draw anymore, and that used to be my life. I still have boxes of sketchbooks lying around. I've only recently tried to get back into photography, and the rust shows.

Anime, it's not something I ever plan to get back into. It's not that it was a passing phase or anything like that. I mean, damn, I used to run a club and everything. It's just not where I am anymore. But still, there are some things that I enjoy. Today, I sat down and watched Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind which was recently released by Disney on DVD. It was one of my favorite anime movies, and surprisingly, it still manages to affect me like it used to.

Nowadays, it's hard for me to separate things out. It's hard for me to figure out if I love the movie as much as I love the times when I first watched it, when I was getting into anime and watching it with my friends, and all the fantastic times we had together. I can't figure out anymore if it's the movie that tears me up, or if it's the memories of the movie.

You know, youth is an elusive thing. Sometimes, the memories are so precious that I don't want to remember them, because it hurts. And it's a good kind of hurt, but it still hurts nonetheless.

1 comment:

Dr. Luke Van Tessel said...

I've got this Les Paul guitar I loaned to a guy. It's a $2,000 guitar. I told him I'd take it back when I had a chance to play it. That was six years ago. I can't remember a goddamned thing about it, and I'm not so good at infectious diseases, either.