Wouldn’t life be better if it was more like the movies?

Published 5:00 am Thursday, July 24, 2025

We all love movies. They whisk us away to a different life, a unique place, a fanciful time. They drop us into a plot loaded with romance, action, suspense and conclusions that leave its characters changed, often for the better. Happy endings? – You bet.

Of course, the moment the credits roll, the fantasy ends, and we have to return to real life, to the mundane Tuesdays and paying bills and debating what to make for dinner. It’s a letdown, isn’t it? But what if it didn’t have to go that way? What if our life could resemble a movie?

Imagine, for example, waking up to start your day and heading downstairs to the dining room table where a full spread of pancakes, bacon, hashbrown and eggs await. Wouldn’t that be great? Well, except you would inevitably be running late and so would the kids, so they would take about three bites before rushing out the door, leaving most of the food untouched. At this point, whoever cooked the meal is already looking for a way out of this movieland fantasy.

As you rush out the door, you see your kids running behind the school bus. You hop in the car … but it won’t start … which is unfortunate because you have a big presentation to make at work and your boss is a loose cannon, scream-at-the-slightest-inconvenience type. And that’s when you see it, one of your kids’ bikes. Sure, it’s an explosion of pink with handlebar tussles and a quaint cartoon-themed basket hanging over the front wheel, but it’s all you’ve got – your spouse is too busy cleaning up the uneaten breakfast to give you a ride. So, you hop on the small bike, knees against your chest and pedal to the office.

It’s about this time that the narration kicks in, perhaps in the voice of James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman, broadcasting your thoughts and plans – Can anyone else hear them? And then you notice the music, seemingly surrounding you from everywhere and nowhere all at once. There’s a sense of urgency to it, the sort of composition you would expect to hear before someone opens the door in a slasher flick. This can’t be good.

Upon arriving at work, you drop a stack of papers right before getting to the front door. As you scramble to pick them up, people walk past, in too much of a hurry to stop and help. And as you dump the papers on your desk, your boss walks up – and he starts berating you before you can whimper out an explanation.

That’s when something snaps. You’ve had it. Using your office chair as a stepstool, you stand up on your desk. And in a loud, theatrical voice you make an announcement for all to hear: “That’s it, I can’t take this anymore! I quit!”

Your boss jumps back in shock – how could he ever see this coming? Meanwhile, you exhale, relieved. Sure, you have no Plan B, no job prospects waiting in the wings. Your spouse – who has probably just now put the last Tupperware container full of your abandoned breakfast in the fridge – will understand, right?

And that’s when it starts. A single clap from a random co-worker across the den of cubicles. Then another, another. They come faster and faster. A slow clap builds momentum and erupts into a roar of applause.

What happens next is not important and is strangely forgotten – how you got back home, how your spouse reacted, all of it brushed under the mental rug. But the next day, you wake up bright and early, smiling with a renewed vigor. And that’s when it happens, the montage. The day flies by in a blur – typing a resume, hopping in the car, stopping at numerous business offices, all while an upbeat song, probably from the 80s, surrounds your every move.

Yep, movie life sure is great. But it will never happen. I won’t come home from all my shopping trips carrying a grocery bag with a baguette sticking out the top. I will never get in shape during a series of five-second exercise clips backed by “Eye of the Tiger.” I don’t foresee a moment in my life where emotional music swells because everything worked out alright in the end.

But if it ever did happen, my life turning into a movie, I just hope I’m the protagonist, the good guy. Because I would know that no matter what happens, I will survive it. I can count on all the people shooting at me to miss. If I am faced with outwitting an evil villain, I can at least count on them revealing their entire evil plan to me before I have to foil their scheme.

Until then, I’ll just live my ordinary life, living through mundane Tuesdays where nothing dramatic happens. It’s not so bad … and hey, my spouse will be thrilled when we actually finish our homecooked breakfast.