Can you paint with the colors of the wind?
If we could all ignore the stereotypical portrayals of Native-Americans, as well as to what really went down when the settlers came to North America, (where is the scene where Pocahontas’s tribe all get smallpox and die?), then the Disney movie, Pocahontas, is great! Watching this movie as a child made me want to befriend the neighborhood disease infested raccoon, run through my backyard barefoot, and actually try to see colors in the wind. I didn’t, but that didn’t stop me from trying to look, (or talking to nearby trees…grandmother Willow I know you’re in there.)
I think what makes Pocahontas a fierce princess to be reckoned with is the fact that she totally ditched moody boy Kocoum, hooked up with bad boy John Smith, and told her dad it was a no go with his old ways. Don’t we all feel this constant battle when we’ve dated that one guy our parents don’t like? I mean, there’s your Religions major boyfriend on the chopping block, and you just want to whip your luscious hair and protect him from the harsh comments from your folks. Gosh, why can’t they accept his major and love of plaid shirts? Don’t they understand this is a love that lasts forever? Talk about savages.
Pocahontas and her attitude bring me to the lesson all Disney Princesses in college should use: Do what you love; your degree/life is just around the river bed. Sometimes we Disney princesses are pressured to date the jerk Kocoum in various ways. We have to major in Accounting because our tribe is all in the medical field; we have to take certain classes because our Chief Daddy-O will scalp us of our financial aid; we have to listen to the hummingbird in our ears that tells us to major in something that will make us a lot of money because Philosophy won’t buy us enough corn for the freezing winter. It is pressures like these that force us to go crazy and perhaps start talking to the nearby trees on Landis Green, or pig out on gross foods.
Those waffle fries are MINE, MINE, MINE!
What advice I wish to bestow on you princesses is…don’t sweat it! We can’t always be steady as the beating drum, but if we just keep doing what makes us happy, then perhaps the compass of our lives will finally point us in the right direction. It won’t be easy (did you see all that war going on during, Pocahontas? So much drama), but hopefully when you look back at your college days, you can recall that you did the things that made you happy. Whether it is meeting a white boy stranger in the woods, or majoring in something you totally think is the bee’s knees, then do it! Your degree and college memories are YOUR LAND, YOUR LIFE! So dig, dig, dig until you get what makes you satisfied. Disney Princesses…listen to your heart…then you’ll understand.
You and your luscious hair are free!