Holiday In The Wild

    A woman whose marriage was on the brink of divorce decided to go to Africa by herself for their supposedly second honeymoon. I admire her courage for that and the mentality she faced the fact, which was that after her son went to university, her husband decided to leave her. Instead of anger, she kept her original plan. In Africa, she met herself and a new life began slowly.

    On the way to the lodge, she and the pilot, Derek, accidentally rescued a baby elephant whose mother's ivories were cut by poachers. She used to be a vet and loved working with animals. Due to this baby elephant, it seemed to have another responsibility there. Everyone started calling her Dr. Kate. Time flies, it was time to return to New York. Nevertheless, she decided to stay longer. On the one hand, she didn't wanna go back to face an empty nest. On the other hand, everyone there was so friendly as though she was a part of this big family. Her son, Luke, came to Africa to surprise her for Christmas Eve. During a few days in Africa, Luke discovered how different life was. Therefore, he announced he wanted to drop out of college and wanting to pursue his passion, music. He did not want to wait 20 years to do what he really wanna do. It was difficult for Kate to change his mind, but finally, she still supported him. Now that he was passionate about music, Kate tried to convince her husband to let him go to Musical College. It’s a perfect solution. Luke stayed in college, but he studied something that he loved. As parents, they just had to help him be himself.

     Once a man and a woman get married, they start having responsibility for their family and caring for kids. However, some of them also forget to spend time with each other, not having the same hobby. Day by day, kids grow up. Couples also might develop their own social activity separately and then the affection fade away slowly. In the movie, all of a sudden, Kate felt empty when she faced the big house. After Christmas, Kate went back to New York. She found a job soon, being a vet. In a cozy life in New York, she felt lonely every evening. One day, she called Jonathan, who also worked in the elephant’s nursery in Africa. He mentioned the board terminated funding as of the New Year, which Derek didn’t want Jonathan to tell Kate. However, Kate who loved animals was unable to see that happened. She started to raise donations from everywhere including her husband and friends.

     In Africa, she got to know more about Derek, who loved animals too. They had something in common and they both loved animals. In this kind of different place, Africa, it seemed that they also supported their soul with each other, which let the person who you love walks in. Although life in Africa, which needed home-made gifts, no shopping involved, was rather different from a cozy life in New York, she still decided to sell her apartment to settle down in Africa and spend the rest of her life with Derek. It is how a new life began, which was to find support for your life.

    At the end of the movie, they released the elephant named Menu back to the wild, which Kate and Derek rescued. After saying goodbye to Menu, Derek said, New York, which was Kate's nickname in the movie, let's go home. Sounds like Africa is your home.