After four years, nine columns, and countless late-night writing sessions, my time at The Oracle has come to an end. I’ve written stories upon stories, ranging from embarrassing tales of my adolescence to pockets of loneliness as I enter my adult years. It’s been a confusing, frustrating, and wonderful journey, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

So ladies and gentlemen, as the lights dim and the curtains close, I wish to conclude my writing career by convincing you to watch the movie that changed my life. 

Everything Everywhere All At Once.

I first watched Everything Everywhere All At Once while nestled in the bed I hadn’t moved from since testing postive for Covid-19 only three days before. It was an interesting time in my life, to say the least, considering someone crashed into my car four days prior. And as if the irony Gods couldn’t get enough, a week before all this, I found out my dog was going to be put down as well. 

I felt angry and depressed, but worst of all I felt alone. Literally and figuratively considering I was quarantined in my room for five days straight. As I pressed play on Everything Everywhere All At Once, I took a deep breath and accepted that it was me, my three-day-old pajamas, and my sketchy pirated movie website against the world. 

Throughout those pivotal two and a half hours, I laughed, cried, and felt something I hadn’t felt for a long time: hope.

Everything Everywhere All At Once follows the story of Evelyn, a financially failing laundromat owner, who grapples with the pains of marriage, generational trauma, and mother-daughter relationships. One day, Evelyn is pulled away from her routine life to embark on a journey to save the world by traveling across the multiverse to restore balance. Through this journey, Evelyn sees a different version of herself in each universe, and all the lives she could have lived had she made different life choices. 

Evelyn’s husband Waymond sees her being sucked into this vicious cycle of longing and regret and tries to draw her out of it any way he can. He is unbearably kind to everyone he encounters, dances around the laundromat to make his daughter laugh, and puts googly eyes onto mundane objects in hopes of making people smile. Waymond knows he is seen as weak and foolish for trying to create happiness in a world Evelyn perceives to be deprived of meaning, but he does so anyways because of his love for his family. 

Evelyn’s daughter Joy has always been a disappointment to her mother. Joy is a broken mirror of her mother, she is all of her failed dreams and insecurities, she is everything Evelyn could have been, and will never be. Joy has never lived up to what Evelyn wishes she could be, and in turn punishes and isolates herself from her family. She longs for love and warmth from her mother but believes she will never receive it because her mother fails to see the real her. But for some reason, Joy scours every life and every universe, searching for her mother because despite it all, Joy loves her mother and that love remains the only thing that is ever constant.

This movie is beautifully absurd, heartwarming, and unlike anything else I’ve ever seen before. It perfectly encapsulated the authentic human experience and one’s search for meaning and purpose. It captures the endless depths of a mother’s love and its ability to spread across each universe. 

As I finished the movie, closed my eyes, and let the tears run down my cheeks, I suddenly didn’t feel so alone anymore. If Evelyn and Joy’s love could span the multiverse, I’m almost positive my family’s love could span across the hall. Some may say it’s foolish to chase love in a world like this but I believe that it is the love of my family that has kept me alive above all else. 

Just as the starring actors of this film, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis, thanked their supporters for their Oscars, I would like to thank everyone who has supported me through my final act. The Oracle staff, my friends, and my family, this column is just one lengthy love letter to all of you.

Thank you.