Kiki's Delivery Service

I've been feeling a little blue lately so I thought this would be a perfect chance for me to talk a little about Kiki's Delivery Service.

The movie tells the story of Kiki, a young witch girl just old enough to leave her home. "Young witches must journey alone to find a new town to live in", that is the old custom Kiki too has to follow. But she is not worried as she already has a plan! She has always dreamed of living in a town with an ocean view and so sets off towards the unknown full of hope and optimism. The first night on the road was not easy, but by the next morning, Kiki has already found her dream city.

Kiki's dreams soon start to crack. Just moments after arriving in the town, she starts to get unwanted attention, almost gets into a car accident, is driven off from a public park and then a hotel clerk refuses to rent her a room because of her age. 

Things start to look hopeless, but when a kind bakery owner Osono sees Kiki flying, she suggests her to start doing deliveries to earn money. Kiki even gets to use an attic room the bakery has as a payment for helping out in the bakery between her deliveries. 

The life that just started to ger better for Kiki gets thrown into chaos yet again. The delivery service that had such a good start seems to have lost most of its customers, and the few customers that do commission her, make Kiki's stress levels rise to the roof.

While doing the first delivery for a while, she gets attacked by crows and ends up dropping the package.

The next job makes her fly in a rainstorm. The journey back home wouldn't have been as bitter if the receiver of the package hadn't made it so clear that Kiki's delivery wasn't appreciated.

She ends up getting sick and misses the first party she was invited to after moving to the new town.

Kiki gets totally emotionally burned out. So badly that she loses her powers to fly. In her desperate attempt to fix the situation she even ends up breaking her broom.

Kiki does ultimately find her own place in the city and has her happy ending in the movie. But her struggles are something most can relate to. The feeling of everything being harder than they should be or getting tired of something you used to love. I've had to learn the same lesson Kiki learns multiple times, taking a break isn't the same as giving up. Doing something else for a change doesn't mean you can never return to enjoy the things you did before.