When you were a kid, you probably believed Santa Claus existed and didn’t know it was actually your parents giving you the presents. If you’ve ever looked back to the past at all the fun things you did as a child, you get a feeling of happiness and a sense that you misunderstood a lot of things.

Recently, I was able to reflect upon my childhood. Last week, my English teacher Steve Rayburn told our class that we could watch any one movie for the remaining days of school as a reward for finishing the syllabus early.

The decision was to watch the Disney movie “The Lion King.”

At first, I thought this was sort of silly for juniors and seniors to watch, since for one “The Lion King” is an old cartoon movie. I also was disappointed that we didn’t choose “Forrest Gump,” a movie that I’ve always wanted but never been able to see.

However, after watching the introduction of the movie — Rafiki holding Simba to the sky, and listening to the song “Circle of Life” in the background — so many childhood memories came to me. I remembered everything I used to enjoy as a child. I always loved to watch Disney
cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck. I also really enjoyed watching Disney movies like “The Aristocats,” “The Jungle Book,” “Aladdin,” and “101 Dalmatians.”

Happy as I may be to relisten to the "Hakuna Matata" song, now that I watch it again 12 years later, I have a whole entire different opinion on the movie. I feel like that I misinterpreted a lot of stuff when I was a young child. I remembered how I didn’t appreciate “The Lion King” songs like “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” or the sad scenes where Mufasa dies and when Simba meets Nala again. Now, I found many of the scenes to be quite powerful. For example, watching Simba and Nala reunited was very heartwarming.

School is finally almost over, and most Uni students have probably been stressed for the past couple of weeks. Uni students still have to now worry about finals. However, once they are over, take some time to look back to the past and see how much you’ve changed. Whether it be seeing how much you learned this year, how much you’ve changed since you entered high school, or looking back to your childhood, you’ll feel a sense of happiness and better understanding.