Literally, 'We Bought a Zoo'

Rosie approached her Dad who was in the kitchen at night. She whined about how again she had terrible bed time, 

"I couldn't sleep Daddy, their happyish is too loud." 

She drag her Dad's hand to follow her to the bedroom and showed him through the window. Their neighbors were having garden party and dancing under the sky. 

Poor Rosie and Dylan (her brother), both were grown up without the love from their Mom. Benjamin Mee, their Dad, was so busy with his adventurous works, no wonder they grew up messily. Dylan was always silent, when Dad only cared about Rosie, he expressed his feeling with his odd paintings. Too exceptional until the school was about to expel him for his brutal paintings of skulls and bloods that are not good to be seen and might give bad impacts to the school.

Long story short, Benjamin Mee decided to move out, so he could at least give a tiny of happiness for Rosie so she could have a better space for sleep. They bought a house with a zoo as a plus. 

Now I get it, the reason why the title is "We Bought a Zoo", because literally, they bought (a house plus) a zoo. 

The house was the only house with spacious yard, so Rosie doesn't bother to hear unnecessary 'loud' from neighbors. However, the former owner obliged the buyer to also buy the zoo (including to maintain his staff) that he has been looking after for so long and never wanted to shut it down. 

Seeing the smiles from Rosie when she pet the birds, Benjamin Mee could not say no. He approved whatever the requirement is. 

Nevertheless, the zoo was broken and needed to be renovated before re-open. Thus, for sure, he needed to spend much money. Recklessly, he didn't have enough money and was about to create a chaos as all the staff had already trusted him and if they knew he had no money,  they would feel him like a bullshit. The staff might think he made a fraud. 

Unexpectedly, when Mee almost gave up, while laying on the couch, wearing her wife's favorite grey hoodie, and putting his hand on the pocket, he found a letter. Her wife, generously, left him with a huge amount of money, because she knew him very well how adventurous he is but likely neglecting to plan financial matters, hence she might already predict that he would undergo this financial crisis in the future.

The zoo things, all had been almost resolved, yet his relationship with his son, were still bad. They were like cat and dog that always fight. Dylan preferred to do painting alone rather than in quarrel with his dad. While painting, Lily, the youngest staff in the zoo, around Dylan's age, frequently found him and shared her sandwich while watching him doing the painting. Lily looked amazed with his brutal painting when others felt annoyed. 

However, Dylan was slow to catch Lily's feeling. He, without feeling guilty, blabbered about his friends from his past school and how he missed them even though they never visited him since his moving. And he was excited to meet them and felt like he was going to leave Lily and chose his old friends than her who was currently accompanying him. Accordingly, Lily never appeared again in Dylan's painting spot. Dylan realized, how Lily's presence made him cheered, so without Lily, he felt empty. 

Knowing Dylan was dejected, his Dad approached him, "I thought you were friends with Lily", then they started to talk each other, Dylan was willing to open up to his Dad, then his Dad suggested him "20 seconds of bravery". He advised him, to be brave only for 20 seconds, to remove his insecurity, and just act, then he will see something surprising. His Dad said, it was what he did, when he firstly met their mother. 

On rainy day, the wet Dylan went to Lily's house, headed to her room, then he knocked her windows and called her from outside. He told her how he felt sorry and missed her out loud. And yes, what his Dad told him was correct, Lily accepted his apology and they made friends again. 

Besides Lily, his Dad was his first fan of his painting but he never told until he noticed that Dylan could contribute to the zoo with his skill. He asked Dylan to create the zoo logo. As expected, the logo was perfect. The re-opening of the zoo was a success. 

***

Here, I have several things to discuss regarding the movie. Firstly, I really like Rosie's line when she said "I couldn't sleep Daddy, their happyish is too loud." What she said was touching me, I understand the feeling very well, it is like when you were so hungry but no food, and could not help watching other people eating. It is better not to see. 

Real example nowadays is, when you use social media, and your life was stressful and you are craving of happiness. However, your friends' happyish posts just popped up while you are scrolling, meanwhile you could not afford the happiness at that time due to some reasons. I believe you feel happy too for your friends' happiness, yet I bet, there may be a tiny space in your heart that you are envy of their happiness. So rather than adding more stresses after comparing their life with yours, it is better not  to see. 

I have ever been in that place when I was having so many happy memories, but at that time, I never think what other people might feel about what I felt. I was too selfish, so now, I learned after being in another shoes. Oh, so this is the feeling when you are the viewer, you may feel sad and start overthinking about how your life is so miserable and it is disturbing your self-esteem. Thus, I tried to detach myself from social media. 

Secondly, being adventurous is great, but without planning, particularly financial planning, Benjamin Mee almost ruined his family. This is what is wise to be learned. Something cliché, but not easy to perform. As matter of fact, between us still prefer to buy something based on which brand, when it is pricy but still forcing own self to buy, then do not have money left for savings (except those who are already rich by privilege). So they live for what is present, and forget to plan for the future. 

The last, regarding "20 seconds of brave" is a good method especially for introvert person. This formulation is needed, one of the examples is when the introvert person is at work and is required to contact a key person. I understand how not easy it is to open a conversation but it is a must if we do not want to lose the job. So, this person needs 20 seconds of brave, and voila after it, it will just flow smoothly. 

That's all what are in my mind, if you have other opinion, just jump to my comments box below. I apologize if mistakes are found within my writing and thank you for visiting my blog :)

Disclaimer: all the pictures were taken from google.