Waves in The Starry Night

     Vincent Van Gogh used to eat yellow paint because he thought it would make him happy. This fact is widely known. Vincent Van Gogh is a household name. We aren’t all artists but you’ve heard of The Starry Night. Van Gogh lives on because his artistic influence was so significant it surpassed his mistaken thoughts. Van Gogh took a risk, and it wasn’t for the greater good, his family, or some cliché it was for himself. There’s this amazing movie that came out a few years ago. It’s called Chasing Mavericks. It’s not about anything out of the ordinary, I mean, it’s about a boy from a broken home with a pipe dream. It’s something you've seen produced a million times. You saw it in The Blind Side, Never Back Down, Rocky, and then Creed. Except in this story, he dies, and it’s tragic and heartbreaking but real and raw in its entirety. 
     

    We shadowed a teenage boy who followed waves. His childhood consisted of seeking someing foreign. I’m not sure what surfing was to him. He could’ve been filling the void of his absent father whom he needed at the time or escaping from the guys who made sure to treat him like trash. I don’t know if he was looking for or forward to anything, but whatever it was, it was in those waves. Jay Morrty went on a journey. And in this chapter, he stumbled upon a coach. There was suddenly a bond between him and this older grumpy man, who shared his love for surfing. This type of bond was unfamiliar, but he accepted it gratefully. With the guidance of said grumpy old man (Frosty) Jay became more self-fulfilled than ever. In one fell swoop he was hanging out with the girl, he never had the balls to pursue. He was waking up before any of those douches who always had something to say to go surfing with Frosty. Jay was what I’d call goofy if you watched him go about his day you'd be curious about where he was going in life. Yet Jay quite literally elevated above us all. He aimed to surf a hundred-foot wave knowing all the repercussions. This is what you would call a kamikaze mission. But Jay didn't call it that, he called it a goal. This aspiration of his was accomplished.  

     

    Jay shares commonalities with Van Gogh; he made choices that put his health in jeopardy choices that were both evidently unsafe and concerning. Yet I don’t think his decision was made at the expense of his well-being before it. Prior to conquering his surfing aspirations, Jay lacked discipline, confidence and in many other areas. Thus had he never set this unfathomable goal he never would have felt passionate joy. The same joy Van Gogh possessed. What Jay sought wasn’t tangible and I don’t want to undermine that because he passed away while continuing to Chase Mavericks. There's this saying it goes, “Reasons to live give reasons to die” and I think Jay found something he thought was worth dying for because it made him feel alive. It’s more than unfortunate that he passed but Jay knew what yellow paint tasted like long before most of us ever will.