Baby, you are gonna miss that plane

I remember a specific conversation I had once with my mother, it happened in a car when we lived on a farm in Western Kansas. I would have had to have been under 11 years old. We were listening to the radio and I was a premature angry young man, I made the comment that I hated popular radio because all the songs are about love. I then proceeded to prove my startling point by counting how many songs in a row appeared to be about love. At that time I had no interest in romantic love, at all.
Years later I remember a series of conversations that I would have with many of my friends late one night. I was living in Kansas City, KS, and it suddenly occurred to me that more than anything in my life, my dream and desire was to be madly in love. I proceeded to then call many people I knew and proclaimed as much to them. I was no longer such an angry young man.
I was thinking about these two separate versions of myself because last night I viewed Richard Linklater's "Before Sunset", which is a sequel to "Before Sunrise". A movie, which I might be moved into admitting maybe helped me open up to the appreciation of romantic Love.
I saw the First film sometime around my Junior year in High School, about the time I somehow lucked into having a real relationship with an actual female. This would have been around 1996-97. I was instantly moved, and I will admit to having watched the film no less then 5 times. "Before Sunrise" is about a young American man who meets an female French student on a train from Budapest to Vienna. The American Man, played by Ethan Hawk, is disembarking the train in Vienna in order to catch a flight back to the States. The French student played by Julie Delpy, is staying on the train en route to her home in Paris. They meet cute and a notion takes hold that she should get off the train with him and they can continue to keep each others company until his flight the next morning. The movie ends with an impossible promise to see each other again in 6 months at the same train station which begins our movie. No last names nor phone numbers are exchanged, the fate of their love rides on one big promise. The story in Before Sunset picks up 9 years after the story in Before Sunrise with the same two characters, and with an explanation of what has happened to them in the time that has passed, they have changed in some ways, but also have essentially remained themselves.
It was very interesting for me to realize that I've lived 9 years since I saw the first film and last night when I saw the second. I've now lucked into a real life relationship with a real life woman. I can remember some of the things I used to think and the way I think about those things now. It's really remarkable to experience a time line that effectively. It had me thinking about the 7up series of films which moved me so completely, and how the possibility for that type of life long work is set up with these two films. I hope so, I think it would be of value for me to look back on my life with films this good as a window of examination, it could be solidly helpful, and might help prevent me from becoming a bitter old man.