"Dear Jack"

So, I am sitting here right after watching one of the strongest films I have ever seen in my life. It was entitled "Dear Jack", about one of the best musicians of this time, and I am going to go as far as to say the best piano player of his age - Andrew McMahon. Andrew is the frontman of Jacks Mannequin and Something Corporate, and someone who has had quite the impact on how I think about things. 


So, as I am sitting here thinking about this film and waiting for my coffee to be done on this snow day, I am realizing that I don't appreciate him as much as I should. Someone who brings me such positivity, and I just simply cease to realize how brilliant he truely is. 


This film introduces you to his entire family and the serious struggle that he went through while fighting his battle with Leukemia at the tender age of 22. I know that some children as young as 10 years old have to fight this horrid battle, but I had never realized how sick he was when I was hearing such beauty conveyed through his music before. 


The film takes you from the very beginning of his life, from where his uncle died of cancer and continued to live on through Andrew, to where he wrote his first songs at age 8, to touring with Something Corporate, to signing off on Something Corporate, to staring Jack's Mannequin, to being signed, to meeting his girlfriend, to recording Everything In Transit and then to him being diagnosed. I have never cried more in one movie before in my life. It is so heart wrenching and difficult to grasp while you watch it because he is so strong. 


I want to be that strong. I want to be able to deal with the things that he struggles with every day from 2005-2006. If Andrew could still write and record everything he did when he was so sick, then I can surely get through every day, or that damned French test I am so worried about. 


I really recommend this to anyone that is having a hard time with anything, so you can just realize how easy it is to lose your life to a disease, and to see how strong you can be. This just encourages me so much to go out and get my 'Swim' tattoo.