Lightning McQueen, Route 66, Radiator Springs and Finding Yourself

When you find yourself
In some far off place,
And it causes you
To rethink some things.
You start to sense
That slowly you’re becoming someone else
And then you find yourself.

When you make new friends
In a brand new town,
And you start to think
About settling down,
The things that would have been lost on you
Are now clear as a bell.
And you find yourself
That’s when you find yourself.

Well you go through life
So sure of where you’re heading,
And you wind up lost
And it’s the best thing that could happen.
‘Cause sometimes when you lose your way
It’s really just as well.
‘Cause you find yourself;
That when you find yourself.

When you meet the one
You’ve been waiting for,
And she’s everything
That you want and more,
You look at her
And you finally start
To live for someone else.
And then you find yourself;
That’s when you find yourself.

We go through life
So sure of where we’re heading,
And then we wind up lost
And it’s the best thing that could happen.
Sometimes when you lose your way
It’s really just as well.
Because you find yourself;
Yeah that’s when you find yourself.


Well, when you want to find a movie that'll somehow teach you a simple lesson in life, go look for an animated movie (or as they'd say in the '80s, a cartoon). That'll surely make you leave the cinema, or your favorite comfy chair, with a light heart, but with a lesson learned.

This lesson I learned came from Disney's "Cars". Well, actually, from one of the songs on its OST -- Find Yourself. Didn't think a song done by a Country singer would catch my fancy, but more about that in a little bit. Cars is one of my all-time favorite movies. The story is pretty simple, but the trip to Radiator Springs reminded me of my road trip last year with Hestia to the Grand Canyon. We drove down the Mother Road, Route 66.

Getting off the main freeway and on to Route 66 is a bit like getting of SLEX or NLEX and going onto provincial roads. It's not as wide, nor as spacious, and you can't go as fast. A bother for the true blue Lightning McQueen in each one of us. But like Route 66 passing through Carburetor County, these country roads are quaint and charming. And if you travel into the countryside more, the less you see the same stuff you see in the city, and the more you have a glimpse and a taste of the more laidback culture.

That was a fun trip. Romantic, you could say that. It was then the longest time I had been seated beside Hestia. Well, the longest time I had been seated beside her straight, without anyone or anything getting in the way. I'm speaking figuratively, of course, you dirty mind, you. :P

Now about the song whose lyrics I've again shamelessly posted on the blog. There comes a time in your life when you're just too caught up with what you do (well, or not), that you, ehem, lose yourself and just find in your place this lost person just going through the motions. You end up doing something that you've been accustomed to doing, but you no longer recall why you're doing it. One day, you just end up hitting a wall, or getting, ehem, lost. It's when you're knocked off of this comfy (comfy coz you're used to being there) perch that you realize you don't know exactly who you are anymore, and you don't know exactly where you wanna go.

Lightning was too busy basking in his glory, that he forgot about the simple yet more important things in life. I was caught up going through some familiar motions about 3 years back. My brick wall was the announcement that I'd be pulled out of my project, my lofty perch, and moved to a new one, working with colleagues I was not familiar with, and at a place miles in the direction opposite of where I wanted to be. I was, ehem, lost.

And Hestia was, packaged together, my Sally Carrera, my Radiator Springs, and my reason to go all out for the Piston Cup, yet not that all out to lose my self again. When I found her, then realized that she is the one I want to be with, I knew my life was going to change -- for the better, of course. I found myself. I found her, then I found me.

I found out that I didn't want to be single for very long anymore, and that I would like to experience the joys and pains of being married to the woman of my dreams and the love of my life. (Whether I'll be saying the same after years of being married, I don't know.)

Hehehe! Just kidding Honey. That part is something we both will be working on by living our lives together. I miss you. I love you.