By Dante Spado
Have you ever been sitting around with nothing to do and you find yourself skimming through channels on TV? You see all the usual stuff you never click on; Dr. Phil, Law and Order and the afternoon news. But then something catches your eye, a movie that you love, maybe one you haven’t seen in a long time. And then you sit there for two hours and watch the whole thing.
I wish I knew the number of times I’ve done this. This school year alone my roommate Alex and I have seen the Jurassic Park movies, Thor Ragnarok, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and several other movies in this fashion. We put it on and the next thing you know we watched the whole thing, commercials and all.
This weekend we were hit by our worst case of this phenomenon yet. We watched all four Hunger Games movies. I don’t know how it happened. I wish I did. Saturday afternoon I was clicking around the channels and saw The Hunger Games was on. I selected it and it was right at the part where Katniss was rising into the arena. Perfect timing.
Alex and I watched it for a while, and during a commercial break, it was revealed that it was “The Hunger Games weekend” and that the movies would be playing on a loop. The first movie ended and went straight into the second, Catching Fire. Spoiler alert: we did not change the channel.
We watched to the point where the Tributes get into the arena and then we got dinner. I promise we do have somewhat of a life.
Then, on Sunday I happened to find Mocking Jay: Part 1 just as it was starting. I think you know where this is going. After Part 1 ended I needed a little break, so I did some homework for a bit, then came out about halfway through Part 2 and finished the series off. I survived “The Hunger Games weekend.”
This experience made me think back to my middle school and high school days where I, like many young adults and teens, was obsessed with The Hunger Games books and movies. Every year I went to see the newest movie with a group of family friends at Thanksgiving, and it was always something I looked forward to. I hadn’t seen any of the movies since Mocking Jay: Part 2 came out, so it was nice to see them again. I was surprised how much I remembered from them. Alex would ask me a question about who a character was or what was happening and I immediately knew the answer. I guess some stuff just doesn’t go away.
Toward the end of last summer, I started reading “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, a prequel Hunger Games book that focuses on a young President Snow. It was really good and I enjoyed it a lot, but once I started the fall semester I never finished it. The last 50 pages have been sitting on my desk taunting me all year, and I think “The Hunger Games weekend” was the motivation I needed to finally finish it.
As the school year winds down and many of us go on to graduate and start working, make sure to take time for yourself to unwind with a favorite movie or book. And may the odds be ever in your favor.