As my friends will know, I am absolutely obsessed with Disney movies. Alright, maybe not just Disney movies, but everything about the stories Disney has recreated. From the story of "The Little Mermaid" and how in their movie, Ariel ends up finding her true love and living happily ever after. In the original Danish mythology, she ended up becoming what one could consider sea foam, but others believe her to become the wind. Either way, the point of this is not to begin a detailed understanding of Ariel, but actually to preface my favorite Disney story of all time: "Peter Pan". Now of course, I was introduced to "Peter Pan" as a young child, and couldn't fully comprehend the depth this story actually bared when I was only 4-years-old. It took me until I was 19-years-old to fully begin to understand in more depth what the story of Peter Pan meant, and this will chronicle the life-changing story about how I came to find out just how much this story was relevant to my life.

All my life I wanted to be an adult. I wished away my life so I could go and have a real job and do real things. It was always what I did. I got to college, and instantly started thriving more than I ever had at home. I loved it. I ended up moving in with my boyfriend at the time for the summer because I just didn't want to go home. I grew up so fast, that I ended up losing myself. It was a bad place for me, and instead of going back to my family, I perpetuated the situation by staying in my college town where I knew no one. I slowly started isolating myself more and more, until the point that I deemed my life wasn't as worthy as I thought it was. Now I will disclose that I did not attempt suicide, but I was beginning to seriously consider it and had a plan of action at the time. Thankfully, my now ex-boyfriend intervened and got me to a hospital, and that was the turning point for me. I went into counseling and accept that part of my life and understand that there is value in what had happened (and you'll probably find out at the end of this article).

I was walking through the Walmart in my college town when I found "Peter Pan" on Blu-Ray, and absolutely had to buy it. That night, I sat down and watched it, and something struck with me. I didn't cry or anything, but I was definitely emotionally touched. It made me think about the idea of growing up, and what it meant to grow up too fast. I started listening to the soundtrack from "Finding Neverland", the newest retelling of "Peter Pan's" author, J.M. Barrie's coming to find the story of the infamous immortal boy. I fell in love with the story, and ended up finally going to see the play only weeks before it came off Broadway. The story has touched me on such an emotional level, that while in the theater I cried for the entirety of the musical.

Not just this moment:

I am sad to see that it is leaving Broadway, but am absolutely ecstatic I was able to see it before it went off.

It takes you on the journey of J.M. Barrie leaving his wife (alright lets be real -- she left him) and this expected society that dictated what he was meant to write for the stage. He did not like what he was doing, and in finding the Llewelyn Davies family, he learns what it means to be a kid and play again. The rediscovering of his childhood is what really spoke to me. I had "lost" my childhood in the craziness of life, and that was what I spent my time really trying to do and work to connect with. Eventually, I managed to do this as well, and now I'm living a happy in-between of adulthood and childhood.

I honestly enjoy life so much more now than I ever have because I accepted the fact that I must grow up, but I did not become complacent in the fact that I cannot enjoy myself and have fun at the same time. Something I think everyone can definitely help from thinking of every once in a while.