What happens when you’ve been hurt, abandoned, mocked, bullied, pushed aside, dismissed and forgotten by just about everyone and everything in your life, all your life?
Whatever it is, it’s bound to be anything but good.
How much pain do we walk around and carry throughout our lives?
How much fear do we have of both known and unknown origins?
How much guilt weighing us down do we have on our consciences whether it’s our fault or not?
No one needs any kind of reminder of what this life can sometimes bring us, maybe the word “sometimes” here is inappropriate in describing the reality of life for some. And maybe the word “some” is again inappropriate in describing the reality of life for most.
Will hunting was trying to go through life as normally as he possibly could.
However, he didn’t ask for the abuse, the abandonment, the poverty or the gift he was blessed with.
But it was the same series of misfortunes that led him to meet Dr. Sean Maguire, the therapist who would help him push through some of what torments him.
Will is a brilliant young man who has tons of potential and is at his heart, “a good kid”. Nevertheless, scarred once too many times in his life, he simply doesn’t have the ability to take ahold of any opportunity that comes his way and instead squanders them voluntarily.
When his genius is discovered by an MIT professor who recognizes his gifts and talents, he continues to undermine and ridicule the whole process.
At first glance, you might think this cannot in anyway be like you. You might think to yourself that you would never be in such a position and waste chances like the ones Will was wasting.
The truth is, we are not so different.
“That’s what I’m saying, Will. You’ll never have that kind of relationship in a world where you’re afraid to take the first step because all you’re seeing are the negative things that might happen ten miles down the road.”
How many relationships did you ruin or stall or stifle, because you were too afraid to confront your own pain and to risk being hurt?
How many opportunities did we look at from afar and think “There’s no way I can do that” because we were too afraid to deal with our fears and scars.
How many times did we lie, because we were too scared to say the truth?
How many times did we run, because we were too scared to learn about ourselves, about what really lies beneath our own surface?
When was the last time you measured yourself up, and felt valued for your own worth?
When was the last time you felt weren’t just the sum of your mistakes?
When was the last time you realized you were just potential waiting to happen?
So many obstacles lie ahead of us in life. So, you have to ask yourself, what are the obstacles, and what are they obstructing me from.
The obstacles vary, greatly, and many times they’re in you. It’s not your fault, but the problem is, no one can take them away except you. It’s a problem you didn’t create, but one you need to find the solution for, and that’s just life.
This life is much more than being successful in a job, the MIT professor couldn’t see that.
He wanted Will to succeed more than anything, but he only saw Will through the lens of his potential occupation. Dr. Sean saw Will for something much more, a human.
A human being, in pain and lost hiding under a huge facade of knowledge and sarcasm.
We might have different struggles, our lives have diverging paths, but we all suffer the pains and fears together in one shape or form.
Don’t be afraid to confront them. Don’t keep your life under the label “Great Potential”.
Find your weaknesses and scars, face them, heal from them. Then go out and seek what you want, because in any case, if you’re not brave enough to face the obstacles, you’ll never get to the other side.
“You don’t know about real loss, cause it only occurs when you’ve loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much.”