Inception

First of all, see this movie if you haven't. It's worth it.

In general, my favorite part about movies are the images and the ideas that repeat back on you, like these.

The idea that has stayed with me since seeing the movie is not operating through dreams, the main concept of the film, but rather living in memories. In the film, Dominic Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) spends a majority of his time in his memories with his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), reliving past moments with her. Watching him re-experience every second of their past got me thinking about life, memories, and happiness.

I think, really, that I just wish I could do what he does. I want to go back into my memories and stay there until I feel like waking up, however long that may be. I'm not interested in creating new memories right now, I just want to swim around in my old ones, ones I know to be happy. And I guess that's what we do when we “go to a happy place,” isn't it? We think of something we remember as amazing and use it as fuel to ignore all the bullshit.

Lately I've been retreating into my memories, I think. It shocks me how strong they can be, actually. Whenever I'm down I just think of happy memory after happy memory, like flipping through mental television channels, and for a while I'm so content, intoxicated with nostalgia. I just find myself so very happy not being in the now.

And honestly, I don't see a problem with it. Cobb and Mal spend an entire lifetime in “limbo,” a supposed dream state, building a world, their world, together. They are happy for a lifetime. And although Cobb keeps trying to convince Mal that their dream world is only a dream, she argues and fights and even dies for the idea that limbo was their true reality.

Well, maybe she was right. Why can't reality be the place where you are most happy? Why does it always have to be the thing you wake up to, are brought back to, or have to face?

Maybe I just want to spend my time in my happy place.

Please don't wake me, no
don't shake me
Leave me where I am
I'm only sleeping