As I’m sure you’ve heard, John Hughes – director of such 80s classics as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Sixteen Candles,” and “The Breakfast Club” – has died.

I am connected to the “blogosphere” at least 3/4 of my day, and for the most part, a lot of people do not blog about anything new or post original content. They take a news clip from a favorite site of theirs and post it, thus sharing it with their friends, and their friends sharing it others etc. So when something happens like Michael Jackson’s death, or an alleged monster washing up on shore of some beach, or Paula Abdul leaving American Idol, or legendary director John Hughes dying; it immediately gets blogged about like crazy and everyone posts something about it but nobody offers anything new about the story. They’re just stating that he died and that he will be missed.

Cool? Interesting? Compelling? This post makes me want to go back to your site why? Create original thoughts! Create original content! Be funny, be memorable, be something other than a lemming. For instance, with my blog post called, Imitate or differentiate, I offered another outlook onto the video as opposed to just posting it and throwing it out there into the world yet again like so many others did. Granted, I am guilty of just posting content without offering anything new to it, I will not judge without judging myself. Like this post for instance…this post will be just another, “John Hughes R.I.P.,” blog post where I talk about how those movies defined my youth and how influential he was on a generation.

However, it will also be unique because I have a vessel that not only enables, but kind of requires me to blog about news and issues that deal with the theme of this blog; which is the drama, insight, and emotions that go along with being forced into a stereotype of what it means to grow-up and become an adult. So yeah John Hughes? The guy that directed movies that shaped what kind of person I decided I was going to be, news of him dying fits directly in line with what I usually talk about on this blog.

Allison Reynolds: When you grow up, your heart dies.
- The Breakfast Club

Most thoughts that pass through my head on a regular basis at least take a moment to remember a particular scene from each of these movies. They were totally the essence of high-school yet totally unrelated to the realities of my particular high-school experience. He had a knack for presenting me the version of adolescence I really wanted; he even sold me on the bad parts of it.

Everything I thought high school, college and growing up was going to be, look like, feel like, sound like, etc. I thought was going to be like a John Hughes movie. And maybe because of that, maybe because I spent so much time hoping and trying to make it like one, I lost out on making it my own experience. Leaving me in the position I am today. However, I do not regret it. I feel that where I lacked in branching out then, I gain in branching out now.

There is this song by a band named Okkervil River called “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe.”

I think it suggests that life doesn’t work out like movies do but it also suggests that maybe it does. Just because there is not a magnificent climax with a “costly parade for you only,” doesn’t mean that your life was not movie-esque. Think about it this way, an actor doesn’t usually see the finality of the film they were a part of until the screening and/or possibly the premiere. While shooting the movie the actors certainly don’t see what we see. They saw how it was made; and until they watch the screening only then can they step back and see their “life” that they were portraying as we do when we think back to our past.

The present is just us making a movie that we will watch in our heads in the future where we will quote, reflect, and reference like we do with movies.

Life does emulate movies, and movies do emulate life.

Our past when reflected on will not feel like it did when it was happening, it will be voyeuristic like it is when you watch a movie. You will look at yourself and not see necessarily the same person as you see today. Because you’ve grown, mentally and physically. Seeing who you were in the past will be like watching someone else portray your life like in a movie.

Movies are real life, but it’s expected of you to believe they’re not because we are told that fantasy is not reality, that the things that happen in movies are not real. But the people who are saying that do not understand that movies are metaphors. The things that happen in fiction are just metaphors to teach you something about yourself. To become self aware of the person you actually are, as opposed to be person who you think you are.

Anyway, I just wanted to write another John Hughes R.I.P. blog post and say that I hope that his family and friends are doing okay and are coping well and make it known to the world in the only way that I can right now that he has made my life easier to live as a result of him creating something he was passionate about. Hughes’ work has influenced every generation since and will continue to do so as long as people are willing to listen. I hope he and his family truly understand what they’ve done for this world.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

PS: You should check out this really cool post about a girl who was apparently pen pals with Hughes.