It was a cold night during winter break when my family and I sat down to watch Soul. Judging from the trailer, I was expecting it to be about just that. Soul and jazz music. What I wasn’t expecting was to be in tears by the time the ending credits rolled in.

I’m not the biggest fan of jazz music. You could say I’ve never really “felt the music.” I really was not looking forward to a movie devoted to the topic.

However, it was an interesting and welcomed turn when the movie when a lot deeper than it appeared on the surface.

Soul follows the story of Joe Gardner (played by Jamie Foxx), a middle school band teacher. Joe aspires to play piano with some of the biggest names in jazz music, and when he gets the opportunity to play with legend Dorothea Williams, he is ecstatic.  

On the night Gardner is scheduled to play with Williams he gets so excited that he completely forgets to look where he is walking, falls down a manhole and dies. That’s just the beginning.

He finds himself entering the Great Before, which is the step before the Great Beyond. While in the Great Before, Gardner is obsessed with trying to return to Earth to fulfill his dream of playing with Dorothea Williams.

Joe also picks up a friend in the Great Before called Soul 22 (played by Tina Fey).

The Great Before serves to introduce new souls to the Earth. Souls that have died mentor the new souls. A new soul must find something that sparks their interest in order to begin life on Earth, but Soul 22 has not found something yet. While other new souls look forward to beginning life on Earth, 22 does not.

Joe and 22 eventually make it to Earth by mistake. Joe is trapped in the body of a cat, and Soul 22 is inside Joe’s body. Their adventures on Earth are the main part of the movie.

Joe teaches the new soul everything about life on Earth. The two get a haircut together, ride the subway, and eat pizza. Throughout the movie, 22 has an appreciation for the things that Joe would never think of. She savors the pizza, marvels at nature, and stops to listen to musicians in the subway.

However, Joe Gardner was not the only person who learned lessons from Soul 22 — I did as well. 

I learned that you have to live your life to the fullest each and every day. It may be a cliche, but you never know when you’re going to die, whether it be falling down a manhole or sleeping in your bed.

Soul taught me that you have to have more than one focus in your life. For Joe, it was to play with Dorothea’s jazz band. For students, it could be something like getting into the college of your dreams. 

After Joe eventually does play with Dorothea’s jazz band, he realizes that it wasn’t everything he’d dreamt about — he had just romanticized it in his head.

The same realization can be applied to us as students. Appreciate your journey. You may have this big goal to get into Yale, but appreciate the teachers who help you get there, enjoy participating in extracurriculars, and cherish your friends along the way. You only get one high school experience.

22 experiences a lot of new things for the first time on Earth, from pizza to nature to the subway and even to getting a haircut. Not only is she amazed by these new experiences, but she loves them and grows a strong appreciation for them. She slows down to enjoy the savory taste of pepperoni pizza, to hold a samara (also known as a helicopter) from a tree, and even to adore the crowded and bustling nature of the subway. 

When Joe gets a haircut, 22’s soul is still inside his body. Instead of not talking to the barber and remaining silent during the haircut, 22 talks about anything and everything with the barber. While Joe (still in the body of a cat) listens, he learns more about the barber than he ever had before. 

At the end of the appointment, 22 asks the barber why they had never talked about him before. The barber replies with one of the most thought-provoking statements of the entire movie: “You never asked.”

That quote from the barber really got me thinking that we as human beings are so wrapped up in our own lives that we forget that everyone else has a complex life as well. Joe and the barber had only discussed jazz before. To me, that illustrates the danger of living your life with one solitary goal. 

We can miss out on so many opportunities simply because it doesn’t occur to us to ask about somebody else. Just by talking about the barber, 22 leaves a mark on his day, possibly even his life.

The biggest take-away I had from Soul was to not be afraid. Don’t be afraid to ask people about themselves or to slow down to experience and appreciate something, whether it be old or new. It’s a bit embarrassing to say that I cried at the end of this movie, but I found it that inspiring and striking. The message of living your life to the fullest really resonated with me.

I would highly recommend watching this movie to anybody, young or old. Bring tissues and an open mind.