The past few years I have tried to watch all of the Academy Award nominated movies for Best Picture before the winner is announced. If you look back over the past 50 years at the compilation of Oscar nominated, and winning, films it is easy to correlate each one as a classic.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am no movie expert. I do not pride myself on being able to figure out every piece of symbolism or satirical remark in a film. I will watch fancy movies from indie filmmakers from time to time and think “what in the world did I just watch?” However, I did watch the recent Golden Globe winner and current nominee for Best Picture film, Boyhood…twice.

The main reason I was drawn to watch this movie from the get-go was the fact that it was filmed over a 12 year span with the same actors. What has kept me pondering about the plot in the last week is the weaving together of complexity and simplicity, creating a life through a character which hits so close to reality.

In the world of cinema there is always a curve. Think back to a statistics class you took in college and imagine that perfectly rounded bell curve that has been studied and picked apart for decades. I will admit it is a genius invention and I was taught to use it daily when choosing to become a teacher. Movies follow this mold, beginning with the introduction, building up the characters, a dramatic somewhat predictable situation occurs, letting the characters settle back into their new norm, and then they live happily ever after.

Boyhood does not leave you with a joyous heart-warming feeling of content. That is the point, I suppose, because life does not leave us with those feelings either. I found myself correlating where I was in my life during major cultural events that have taken place over the last 12 years. Thinking back on how many young people I went to school with that were living completely different lives than me, despite the fact that we each set in the same classroom everyday. It led me to think of how many students I have taught, and will teach in the future, that will endure a very different upbringing than I did.

I often tell my students that “the days are long but the years are short” and I see the same theme carried throughout this film. Life can become mundane. I look back at the past 5 years and it is hard to remember what I was doing each and every day. The profound moments are ones that are different than the everyday, the family vacations, the trips with friends, the milestone of graduating college, and beginning new jobs. It is never emptying the dishwasher or going to grab dinner when I’m in a hurry. It is not the mornings I slept in and didn’t have time to grab coffee or the horrible day that I took something too personal at work. Perhaps our mind is programmed to compile all the everyday’s together and highlight the extraordinary days for us, letting us look back at the positives and smile at the memories of our life.

After a life full of adventures I pray I can be proud of the everyday I have created. Each of us develops patterns that become our life and each of the everyday’s eventually turn us into the person we are. I hope I can look back and not think to myself that I just thought there would be more…I hope I know that it was enough.

Just a few of my “everyday’s”.