17. Takeaways: Finding Dory

Who is Dory?

Dory is a crazy little fragment inside all of us. She is sassy, fun, confident and absolutely insane. She is the side of us who scares the other bits of us. Dory is the Dionysian side of Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy. She is about passion and all she knows is to keep swimming.

When I entered the cinema hall to watch Finding Dory, I wasn’t expecting much. I surely wasn’t expecting to learn. I went there for Ellen Degeneres (the voice of Dory). She has done a great job. And I cannot think of better voice than Ellen for Dory. Ellen is all about Dory.

Dory is a blue tang fish and she has short term memory loss. She loses her parents as a child and the story starts when she finally remembers she has a family and she misses them. It’s a heart warming story of a fish who realizes what it’s like to miss for the first time and goes on a journey to look for it.

Finding Dory is about life. It’s about finding our origin and rediscovering our actual self. Finding Dory awakens the Dory in us, we often forget about.

In life, there is at least one place we can always go back to. Our home. Home is safe, beautiful and always welcoming. The essence of having a home ignites because it is the only place we can go back to when we are lost.

If you have a home, you will never lose yourself.

The home comprises people you can always count on. They will love you no matter what you do and who you have become. Home is one thing you will never forget. And if it’s a home, you will always find your way back.

Finding Dory illustrates friends as the other family. They are not related to you by blood but that doesn’t make them less of a family. In life, there are people who will always love you, support you and never let you down.

The people who will agree with your crazy ideas because they don’t know how not to believe. Friends who love you so much, they are conditioned to support you no matter what you decide to do.

Along the journey of life, you will also make acquaintances, they don’t know your back story. But there are people who are always willing to help. The world is full of good people and most of the times we fail to see because we are so afraid to ask them for their help and help them back.

Finding Dory is about enjoying the little things in life, even when you are struggling to remember what keeps you happy. It’s about believing in your destiny when things go out of control.

The movie highlights the need to keep swimming, to keep moving. To keep believing the Dory in us. She, who often talks nonsense but makes so much sense.

Make mistakes but correct them and never ever stop swimming.

So, next time you are lost, ask yourself, ‘What would Dory do?’

Do not be afraid to do things that don’t make sense. Live and let yourself enjoy as a normal human being, flawed with scars and beautiful.

16. Courage

Entrepreneurship.

A fancy word which is difficult to pronounce and has equally difficult meaning.

I have been studying Entrepreneurship as a part of my school curriculum for at least 3 hours a week for months now. I might not know a lot about it but one thing that I have learnt from each class is the importance of courage.

Courage which will push you through every failure. The same courage that directs you and takes you a long way.

Courage, I learnt was the leader in me.

I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur ever since I was 13. I wanted to do something new, change the world. I didn't have the dream to be famous but I had always wanted everyone to recognize my work. Yeah! Sounds contradictory to me as a grown up. But defining my take on what I want from entrepreneurship is now my easy problem.

Difficult ones are the harsh reality of the world. The lessons I learnt, in and outside the class.

In the class, I was advised to network and make a team. For someone who struggles to make friends and loves to work alone, this turned out to be my first big problem. My unwillingness to change, I realized will turn out to be a problem in long run.

I was only starting to wrap my head around this thought when I was hit hard by the outside world. The outside seemed scarier than the inside. I even wished my problems to be limited only to me dealing with strangers.

However, outside made me realize, I would have to fight with my own people to fulfill my dreams. My friends and family. They were likely to act as a barrier between me and my dreams and I would have to make a choice.

The realities were hazing my brain. They were overwhelming. Maybe I learnt too much at once but the realization didn't stop me.

I grabbed numerous books and engrossed myself into the stories of success and failures behind entrepreneurship. Books were my happy place and I was sure they were going to save me. But the more I learnt about entrepreneurship the scarier it looked.

I learnt, there are only few who smile at your accomplishments but a lot more who laugh at your failure. I was afraid to be a failure. I didn't have the tenacity. I was afraid to make a team and give up on people. I was too afraid to make entrepreneurship possible.

But soon I realized, more than anything else, I was afraid to give up on my childhood dreams.

To sum up, the great stories and lessons did teach me few things. Maybe I am not ready, maybe I am over thinking. Maybe textbooks aren't always right, and maybe I am an exception.

A lot of possibilities seem likely but I will never know until I put on the shoes and walk ahead. For now, I can always wish things to go alright. Be ready to fail and learn to let go.

For now, all I can do is learn to be myself.