Would You Change Your Past?

This was my first time watching the movie Arrival and I was blown away.  When we were first started watching the movie in class it was slow and it didn’t make that much sense. It was about the journey of Louise, a linguist, who was chosen to try and communicate with these aliens. She had to figure out how to communicate and eventually learned their language, which changed her life. As the movie came to an end, I was on the edge of my seat. It all started to become clear and I started to realize so many things.  Something that stood out to me was just the importance of language. During one part of the movie Louise explains how she cannot simply ask the question “What is your purpose?” because in order to do so they would have to be able to understand their purpose, if they have a purpose, and connect everything and realizing we are asking them why they are here. This really stood out to me because I never realized how communication impacted us so much. That in order to answer a what/why question, I have to be able to interpret the question itself and figure out what exactly the person is asking.

The ending was CRAZY! I was not ready for that kind of ending! At the end, the aliens had given Louise the power to see her whole life. She saw who she was going to marry and that they were going to divorce later. ” If you could see your whole life from start to finish: Would you change things?” I have been thinking about this question since the movie ended. Would I allow myself to go through difficult times if it meant a better outcome or would I seek to live a calm, easy life with no disruptions? I’m not sure I can accurately answer this question without being able to it. Of course, I have regrets, but that is what has led me to where I am now and I would not want to change that. But at the same time, I feel like there are certain things I would not want to happen. The only thing is, would that change what I’ve been through, would the smallest change in my timeline change who I am?

I have constantly been thinking about this movie and talking about it to my friends and family. I ask them the same question, and I have gotten a variety of answers. Some say yes without a doubt, and some are like me and don’t know if they would want to change. It has made me realize also that we all have mistakes and regrets, but without those, would we be the same person? Would we see the world in a different light or be able to sympathize with others? It made me grateful for what I have gone through and be able to pull something I learned from it and see how my life has been changed through hardships.