The very first time I watched the movie Inside Out, I was a young girl struggling with depression in an alternative school hidden away in Garden City, Michigan. Unlike everyone else my age at the time, I did not get to see it in theatres with a bucket of popcorn and a slushie, but rather in a dimly lit daycare tucked away in the far corners of the school. There, I took care of the children of other students; I changed their diapers, cleaned up after playtime, and laid them down for a nap while a movie played on the flat screen. And somehow, out of the limited number of films at our disposal, Inside Out always ended up being played.

The story follows the life of an eleven-year-old girl named Riley Anderson who struggles with the drastic changes that come with moving far away and starting a new school, with entirely new people. However, the film not only follows Riley’s life as it unfolds, but rather the personified emotions in her head who fight to keep her stable as she adapts to her new environment. Throughout the movie we get to see little details that are meant to reflect and explain the complexities of the human mind: The Train Of Thought that only operates when you’re awake, Memory Lane where you could get lost, Core Memories that make up who you are, and the eventual realization at the end that “Joy” is inherently nothing without “Sadness.” Oftentimes, we are so desperate to lean onto our happiness that we forget to feel the sorrow of life, allowing ourselves to learn nothing from it

The first time I watched it, it hit me so hard that it brought me to tears. It felt like being comforted after a traumatic event, or seeing a light at the end of a dark, hopeless tunnel. I expected nothing less from a movie written by individuals who consulted psychological professionals. And as a teenager who felt too much and didn’t know why, there was something about watching Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, and even Disgust come to life as actual characters with dialogue that helped me to feel more grounded. It reminded me that everything I feel, think, or do has some sort of explanation behind it, even if it isn’t always rational.

Inside Out isn’t just a fun movie where we get to see emotions have emotions. It is a carefully crafted, timeless story meant to help people from a young age find normalcy and understanding within the relentless chaos of their feelings. Even now, I write this as a twenty-four-year-old woman who’s endured the horrific hardships of life like every other adult around me; where anger can only feel like rage, sadness as despair, and happiness as a euphoria I can’t stand. But every time I come back to this film, I am a fifteen-year-old sophomore in high school, hugging myself in a daycare recliner as the children sleep peacefully and unknowingly around me.