It is important to be a ‘Princess’

There is a teen movie called – Princess Protection Program. It is a Disney Channel original movie which stars Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez in pivotal roles. Now this post is not about the movie and hence no spoilers. There is just one thought from the movie that has stuck with me so far. So in the movie Demi Lovato is playing a princess in hiding whereas Selena is playing a normal girl who is in the house where the princess is hiding. Selena’s character teaches Demi’s character to be a regular teenager and Demi Lovato’s character teaches Selena’s character to be more self assured.

During one scene, Demi Lovato goes to a regular American school and greets the canteen lady. She asks her name and then recognizes her country of origin. She then starts to speak in the native language to the canteen lady.

This scene is quite funny in its picturization but also unique in the aspect that it explores that while others find reason to criticize the food, a princess looks out to be kind to the people helping out. The honesty in the scene is that the canteen lady also eats the same food and while all the students have a chance to grow and change their destiny, she is already stuck here for no one knows how long! Additionally, it is the canteen lady serving the food who will listen to all criticism when she may not be the person cooking the food or even be involved in deciding the food menu.

Further in the movie, Demi’s character explains to Selena’s character about how being a Princess is not about living a fairy tale. Princes and Princesses must train and get their education. They need to be fair judge of characters and good thinkers. Since people will turn to them for solutions, they need to learn and perfect their skills more than most people would need to. Above all, they must treat, not only their subjects, but, everyone they meet with utmost respect and kindness. Even if they are distressed, they can not reflect it but always present a calm, composed, peaceful and loving exterior.

This led me to think that we need to have a titular Prince or Princess. Instead, we can all learn to be a Prince or a Princess. We can all adopt kindness and trust each other. We can treat people with respect and humility. We can also start providing solutions or helping people with solutions rather than posing questions or creating problems. If nothing, we can at the least be appreciative that everyone is doing their best and that everyone is going through their own journey. It is not always that we are to understand their point of view but that will in no way, make them wrong!

If you get a chance, do see the movie and definitely think about if you are already a Prince or a Princess whom people look up to for who they are and how they make people feel!