How The Phrase Hakuna Matata Changed My Life

As an adult now, my perspective of Disney movies has changed. I understood things I did not, compared to when I was younger. The meaning of characters, their actions, why this or that represented something good or bad, all changed when I got older. Watching these movies taught me many lessons, and those too have changed with each passing year. Like Aladdin, I felt like I did not belong, and I changed myself just so I could fit in. Like Belle, in Beauty and the Best, I wanted to fall in love with someone that society did not accept. As children, there was not much thinking of life lessons to be lost or gained when watching movies at the time, but just the fact that Disney movies brought a lot of joy, singing and dancing to them, and to me, nothing had to be learned.

I kept watching these movies repeatedly, because deep down, I felt a connection to many of the characters in them. At the age of eighteen, I still enjoy these timeless classics, but for me, I took one of the messages to heart. Hakuna Matata is a wonderful phrase, which means “no worries,” and like the characters, Timon and Pumba in the Lion King, I too live by this philosophy. There was a lot of growing up I had to do, as this phrase made my life stress free, this phrase helped me in my everyday life, and this phrase could also benefit a person in need.

In a perfect world, being stress free would be an anonymous bliss. Life would not be life without stress, and I found that out while I was still in school. Growing up, to most people, would not be stressful, but for me it was. The important things were always handled, but it was the small stuff that got to me a lot while in high school. It was hard making friends because I traveled a lot, and I knew I did not fit in quite so well with American students yet. Trying to love myself in high school was stress all on its own, because people would talk and say negative things, and my positive attitude was not enough for the last high school I went to. I have been to three different high schools altogether, and the moving was painful, but I found a wonderful solution that calmed me down in small and sometimes large stressful circumstances. Hakuna Matata was the song Timon and Pumba sang to little Simba in the Lion King to help him forget his past because it was in the past, and things done or said in the past did not matter. When singing that little tune as a child, I would have never guessed it would help me as an adult, but it did.

There were many ways my Hakuna Matata philosophy helped me. I learned that other people’s negative opinions did not define me as a person. I taught myself that I was important, my thoughts and actions mattered that life was too short to sweat the small stuff, and it felt great when I got them accomplished. Also, to remind myself of that little fact, I downloaded the song on each of my iPod’s, so when something was going on or people were being negative, I would play that song and sing it to myself to show how I was not going to let someone mess up my day out of spite. One time, two of my friends had gotten into an altercation, and I was stuck in the middle of the situation. A lot of bad things were being said, people were pointing fingers and my friends believed that everything was my fault. Even though I was too fabulous to care, Hakuna Matata helped me overcome the small childish things people would say. At the ripe old age of eighteen, I used this in my everyday life to make me feel better about things I did not do so well on, like tests. “Maybe an A would have been better, but a C is still passing. Oh well, Hakuna Matata.”

My problem-free philosophy is not just for me, but others as well. This could benefit others a lot by understanding the method of “no worries” or “no problem.” People should not let things get to them, especially teenagers in high school who are still trying to find themselves as a person. Remembering the little phrase that helped baby Simba become king of the Pride lands could make someone become the next class president. What someone looked like, how that person dressed or where he/she came from should not matter, so Hakuna Matata, and love life, because that is what I did, and now I do not let small things darken my day.

Everyone has a philosophy of life that they live by, or cherish the aspect of something that is meaningful and worthwhile. The motto of “no worries” or “no problem” has grown with me as the definition transformed into a powerful theme in my life, which is a little stress free now because I have eliminated the problems that do not matter. It is an individual choice to live by a personal philosophy that is as simple as this motto, but society is different for each person, and what if everyone had the mentality of Hakuna Matata, would the world be a better place?