While in the 2003 box-office hit Finding Nemo, Dory may just have been this blue fish that suffered from short-term memory loss and explored the depths of the oceans with Nemo and Marlin. 13 years later, this changed in Finding Dory. Pixar devoted a whole movie to explain who this hilarious and confused blue fish really was and why she ran into Nemo and Marlin so far from home. As I watched Finding Dory and sympathized with the little blue fish's tragic life, and laughed at her random outbreaks, I also realized Pixar did more than just inform me on whom Dory was, they made Dory into someone we can learn from.

1. We all have it in us.

Dory’s parents always worried about how their little memory impaired fish could survive out in the world alone. Her mother cried every night with concern; they learned tricks and made tools to help her survive. Yet the moment she ended up in the sea, those tools, along with her parents, were gone and she survived. Dory poses a perfect example of how even though we may depend on others and we may have disabilities that sometimes hold us back, no matter what we can do anything alone as long as we are happy with ourselves.

With this being said, Dory also teaches us...

2. Don't let weaknesses define who we are.

Throughout the whole movie, Dory encounters obstacles in her journey to find her home due to her memory loss, but she doesn’t let that stop her. She pushes through and makes herself remember while taking her clownfish friends and her childhood friends along with her on this adventure.

3. Live the adventure, exceed your comfort zone.

In the beginning, before Dory begins her journey Nemo says to her “isn’t that a beautiful view” and yet Dory’s response to a beautiful view/ home that any fish only dreamed of having wasn’t good enough. Her family was missing and only they could truly make it the perfect picture. While that meant going on another adventure crossing the seas and taking a risk, she’d take it. We should never settle for the safe, or the “just enough”. We should push ourselves for the more than enough and into the unknown.

With this being said Dory also teaches us that,

4. Living in the unknown isn’t so bad.

While everyone loves to know what’s coming next, being safe and having a plan for everything it's not always necessary. Dory in all of her adventures just did it, she didn’t know what was coming next or what trouble she’d encounter but she took the chance and did it. She always lived with the mentality of…

5. Trust yourself.

Since Dory trusted herself and her gut it helped her escape all of the troubles she faced. In the movie, “What would Dory do” became a very popular phrase and the first step of following this through was staying calm and reading your environment and taking a chance on your environment. She always took her first option and trusted that it would work. We often times over think and doubt ourselves who tends to lead us into trouble or failure.

6. Never let go of those that matter to you.

Even when Marlin told Dory that it was impossible to find her loved ones, even after everyone told her that her parents were gone, Dory kept searching until she found her family. Same with when she lost Marlin and Nemo, she made sure she did everything in her power to get them back. She even risked losing her newly found parents in order to help/ find the other half of her family. Many of us stop fighting for those that matter, stop putting in effort, or give up on trying to make things work when they get hard. But this little blue fish never gave up.

Lastly, the catchy phrase we all know and love has modeled to us the one thing we probably have the most trouble doing: just keep swimming. When times get rough, we give up. When we’re doubted, when we’re put down, or when we fail, we stop looking at the positive and stop pushing for success. This never happened with Dory – she kept swimming even when she was afraid, scared, hurt or confused. She’s always positive.

While it may seem like it’s impossible for a little blue animated surgeonfish to teach us these important life lessons, it’s the truth. This tiny fish has made a massive splash not only in the theaters, but in teaching me a little something about how to live a better life.