Roll credits.

It's the end of the movie. The plot lines come full circle. As expected, the protagonist is learning the lessons that he should have realized long ago.

The girl who took his breath away but didn't seem interested? He should have just kept up the fight; she was too busy to return his calls, but she wished he had called one more time. Another love lost.

The guy who everyone else got along with, yet always seemed to be angry at our main character? Surprise! He was indeed a nice guy, but our character didn't take the initiative to talk with him and break through the stereotypes. Another friendship missed.

The friend who always seemed a little distant and unwilling to talk? She was just looking for an invitation to share her story, but it never came, so our character waits until now to find that out.

In the end, it seems like everyone is okay, but only after experiencing these silly lessons that should have been easily recognized and resolved from the beginning.

The audience gets up and leave the theater, enjoying the catharsis of seeing our character mature and learn to finally make the right decisions. But in many cases, it's too late to make corrections. Oops.

I can't think of many things more frustrating than learning some very basic lessons after an unnecessarily long struggle with them. C'mon, I'm a pretty smart guy...why did it take me this long to learn these lesssons? I don't particularly want to be that movie character who takes forever to make some basic realizations about life.

All my stress about the girl? Pointless. My confusion with my supposed enemy? Meaningless. The worries from not connecting with my friend? Could have been easily remedied long, long ago.

(sigh) Do I learn lessons from this? Yes. Is it just incredibly frustrating to see what I lost, left behind, and let slip by? You better belive it.

Mood: Disenchanted and a little bit depressed. Detatched from myself. But strangely, distantly hopeful.
Song: REM, "Let Me In"

He gathered up his loved ones and he brought
Them all around to say goodbye, nice try.