What did I learn from Princess Jasmine?

Like most people out there, ever since I was an infant I remember watching Disney movies.

I actually do not remember the first one that I saw, but I do remember my two favorite movies being Mulan and Aladdin. My sister and I spent hours watching those movies, repeating them one after the other.

Aladdin was a great story about being yourself, finding out what really makes you happy and fighting for what you think is right. Of course there are also topics about keeping your word, making lifelong friends and the whole money doesn’t matter thing.

My favorite message in Aladdin, was the fact that Jasmine was able to make her own decisions.

Jasmine was the princess of Agrabah, the time came where she had to marry someone and her father kept wanting to set her up with men that were not worth her time.

Aladdin came with a douchey approach if we are being honest here. He rolled in with his 75 golden camels to try and win Jasmine over. Jasmine is not that type of princess, you cannot just win her over with 95 white Persian monkeys, who do you think you are prince Ali Abubu.

Jasmine was a very strong character.  Her independence was shown in watching her leave the castle to try and live a “regular life”. Besides being independent, I can tell that she is well grounded and also very smart. I mean except for when she stole that apple, who does that?

As a child I learned so much from Jasmine.

• Fall in love with the man, no the money– Jasmine has all the money in the world, but she is still not happy. It even annoys her the fact that all these men are trying to win her over with money. I’m the same, give me attention and love and fuck money, I can hold my own.
• Go out and search for happiness– Oh my goodness has this changed my life. If I am ever in a situation in which I am not happy I always look for a way to change that. Many times before have I been at a job where I am not happy, or in a friendship that I am not happy and I make a point to leave and search what makes me feel good.
• I am not a prize to be won– I mean I kind of am, but really I think Jasmine is saying that she is not an object. We have feelings, values and opinions. I learned from the very beginning that If someone wanted to be with me, they had to get to know all those great things about me.
• Love makes you do crazy things– You know that very awesome scene where she pretends to be in love with Jafar and she even ends up making out with him? Yeah, she did that because she loved Aladdin. I hope I never have to kiss a Jafar for my husband.
• Do you trust me? – Trust your gut. Sometimes things just feel right and you have to go along with it. I mean if she would have not trusted Aladdin she would not have traveled the world in one night on a magic carpet. Hey, I want to travel the world on a magic carpet.

Those are just a few things that I learned from the movie Aladdin.

Also, I am going to be part of #BlogHer August’s NaBloPoMo which is centered around TALES. Check back and see more.

Thanks for reading!