Life Lessons From A Cartoon Baboon

It doesn’t matter; it’s in the past. – Rafiki (The Lion King)

First of all: yes. I’m a 23 year old male who loves and still draws inspiration from an old Disney movie. The Lion King is awesome, and I’m not at all ashamed of that.

So a bit of context about why I’m writing about this. In the movie (in case you haven’t seen it) Simba, the star lion, is contemplating going back to his home, and facing his past. Rafiki, a baboon, hits Simba over the head with a stick. When Simba asks “What was that for?!”, Rafiki tells him “It doesn’t matter; it’s in the past”. He continues to say:

The past can hurt. But the way I see it: you can run from it, or learn from it.

In fact, watch the bit I mean here:

So for me, I’ve always been the type to take all my mistakes to heart, and to cling on to the past. I always go over and over situations, thinking what I could’ve done better, or how I should have acted, and how different things could have turned out. But the truth is, that once something’s happened, it’s happened, and there’s nothing you can do to change that fact.

But what you CAN do, is learn from it.

You don’t have to totally let go of everything in your past, but you have to realise that you can’t change anything about your past. Instead, resolve to do something about your future.This was a lesson that I learned from a good friend, who’s story we’ll hopefully be sharing through HATW in the next couple of weeks.

You’ve gotta face up to your past, rather than running from it. It’s important to accept that certain things have happened to you. Some good, and some bad. Coming to terms with what’s happened to you might be one of the hardest things you’ve ever had to do, so don’t be afraid to look for help to get there.

And if something’s bumming you out, let yourself be bummed out for a bit. Don’t forget what that wise cartoon baboon said: “The past can hurt”. You don’t need to punish yourself for feeling sad – it’s a totally natural part of being human. But then take a step back and assess whether it’s worth staying sad.

See, beating yourself up over the past isn’t going to get you anywhere. That’s a million times easier to say than to believe and put into practise. But it’s true. It’s in the past, and so it doesn’t need to matter any more. I guess this could also be summed up with a Frank Turner lyric: “It doesn’t matter where you come from, it matters where you go”.

Self-harm becomes a way of running from the past. It might feel like it’s a solution, but really it’s just another problem, caused by something that’s in the past. By leaving the bad bits in the past, they don’t control your life now.And you stop yourself from continuing to be hurt by something that you can do nothing about.

Learn from the past. Learn from the mistakes that you make, so you don’t make them again. Learn from the bad situations you find yourself in, so you don’t put yourself there again. Learn what makes you happy, and is worth keeping. Learn what’s holding you back, or pulling you down, that’s worth letting go of.

Letting go of, and learning from, the painful past can be really hard to do. But it’s infinitely more rewarding than hanging on to it, and holding yourself back from being happy in the future.

I’ll leave you with the challenge that Rafiki leaves Simba:

So what are you going to do?

– Si

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