My Own Lion King.

I watched the Lion King in the movie theatre tonight. I've seen it like thirty times, but I paid thirty dollars to watch it in 3D. Whatever. It never meant more than a lion winning back his pride before last year, but seeing it again brings not only nostalgia, but also a new wave of enlightenment.

Last summer...I don't need to describe last summer. It was fine. It was like the opening to Lion King. I was Simba, exploring a new facet of life (infatuation/love for myself, actually). I was like a little cub in the savannah, learning about things I had never known before. It was brilliant. I wasn't introduced to Scar until around September.

My first true heartbreak was a great loss. It was perhaps the death of Mufasa. It brought me great pain, and my depression only worsened it. Scar only told me to run away from what I was denying. And so I did. I ran away, from my past. I didn't want to remember what I had lost.

And then there were friends there. Good friends, that didn't question my past and helped me forget about what had happened. Timon and Pumbaa. They showed me new things, things that distracted me from Scar. But he lurked there, always causing trouble. My depression was influencing those I loved, and I was ignoring it.

But then Nala came along. She...er, he, in this case. She(he) brought me great joy, sincere joy, that wasn't distracting but very needed. Despite my protests, she(he) shoved the truth in my face, and when I failed to cooperate, grew angry at me.

My favorite part. Here is the lovely Rafiki. I've met him before, he troubled me. Only confused me, with his strange antics and ways of going about things. But now he came, and spoke to me, and this time it was different. He directed me to enlightenment. Perhaps not deliberately, but he showed my Mufasa. Love spoke to me.

Remember who you are.

And I suddenly did. I remembered happiness, I remembered the sweet taste of joy. And now I longed for it with a passion so deep I could not resist. And I ran, I ran to Scar. I ran to confront what had been troubling me for so many months. I didn't care the battle scars I would possibly gain, I wanted him gone. No longer would he trouble my loved ones.

I fought him. I fought him. I fought him with all of my might. I fought him for all the damage he had done. I fought him for all the pain he had caused. And at first, I was reluctant to kill him. I told him Leave, and never return. But that would never be. So I slayed him. I rid myself of Scar. Of my depression.

And so I began anew, with Nala(:3), Timon, Pumbaa, Rafiki...my eyes are clean and now that Scar is gone, there is no one to bid the Pridelands doom. I reside on Pride Rock with joy. For Mother, I am not dead and you will never have to see me running from Scar again.