by Sophia Ludtke ‘20, Commentary Editor 

We are living through history. Yet, when I sat down to write this article, I was thinking about two things: the fact that seniors have two more weeks of high school and Forrest Gump.

Last night, some senior-year sadness began to kick in, and I found myself sprawled on my bedroom floor watching a white feather drift through the breeze and land on Forrest’s sneaker. There’s something about this movie that has always been comforting. But why right now, in this haze of uncertainty about the future, nostalgia, and fear for those most affected does this feel especially so?

I’ve decided to call it the Forrest Gump Phenomenon. Forrest was a good man to the core. He “constantly stumbled into the zeitgeist,” was an “interloper in history,” became an “accidental emblem of his times” – but, perhaps most importantly, he persevered. 

Right now, it feels like we’re in the midst of a movie of our own, witnessing a historic occurrence. Arizona State University recently began a “Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of COVID-19” including video blogs and journal entries from around the globe. Photos of empty NYC and NJ streets constitute the first COVID-19 Library of Congress collection. A Smithsonian National Museum of American History task force explained how “museum staff are working to formulate a plan that achieves a balance between the urgency to document the ephemeral aspects of the historic turning points as they happen and the need to provide a long-term historical perspective.”

As historic as this pandemic may be, it is also deeply tragic and unsettling. For the Class of 2020 in particular, the present uncertainty exists on two levels. There is an uncertainty about the future health of our planet, the strength of the global economy and the sustained livelihoods of many people, and, the well-being of loved ones. And, on a smaller scale, there is individual uncertainty that exists as we begin a new chapter of our lives, transitioning to college, that is being magnified by COVID-19.

Hence the appeal of the Forrest Gump Phenomenon, now more than ever.

It is comforting to believe that a man can wake up every morning with the simple intention of running from coast to coast to coast. It is comforting to believe that someone can carry on the memory of a best friend who died in a war. It is comforting to believe that, with a strong moral compass like Forrest’s, life will work itself out in serendipitous ways.

Yes, Forrest Gump is just a movie. In fact, it has been criticized for oversimplifying and “whitewashing” complex historical events, presenting an idealized picture of the real world. And yes, only enhanced testing, a vaccine, and a revitalized economy can truly dig us out of our present crisis. Indeed my perspective is coming from a place of security, but perhaps there is some value to be had in accepting a bit of cinematic magic right now, in choosing to believe in the Forest Gump phenomenon.           

When will a COVID-19 vaccine be developed? Will schools begin this fall? How will the economy recover? Where will we all be at this time next year? No one yet has these answers. So, rather than sink into a spiral of anxiety and uncertainty, I will try to channel my inner Forrest Gump and imagine the future as a feather drifting through the breeze. I will try to trust that, like Forrest Gump, we can persevere.