You know when you leave for college, and then you come back for break and everything’s weirdly similar but also very different? Familiar things in your house that you took for granted are suddenly changed in a way only you would notice. Many of your friends have had different life experiences than you and suddenly the common experiences that tied you together have left —a weird and undefinable distance. It’s like you forget that things happen, even when you’re not there to see them.
If Zach Braff is to be believed, it’s probably only going to get worse as you grow up. At least, that’s how it seems in Braff’s directorial debut, Garden State.
In the film, Andrew Largeman, is a troubled and struggling actor living in Los Angeles who returns home to New Jersey for his mother’s funeral. While home, he reconnects with some old friends and embarks on a serious personal discovery, romancing his very own manic pixie dream girl along the way.
There are many reasons to watch Garden State. The soundtrack is wonderful; the movie makes a lot of really interesting statements about mental health and our connection to the world around us, and it features Natalie Portman as the love interest.
But for college kids, I think the real value of Garden State is it teaches us the value of coming home when we’re feeling lost. Maybe not even returning physically, like Andrew does in the movie, but mentally. Remembering where you’ve come from when looking at the person you are and trying to gauge if you’re happy with the direction you’re headed is valuable and important.
Once you’ve left college, you are essentially heading into uncharted territory, and that can be as exhilarating as it is terrifying. No matter how we strive to be new and different people, we will always be tethered in some way to the people we once were. Garden State helps us remember the value of memories and the importance of reconciling with the past.
[ READ MORE: LIST: Movies you need to see before graduating ]
