It all started when I was 11, my sister was visiting and we were eating dinner, I remember the night like it was yesterday. There was 2 couches and a recliner. I was on the big one, my sister was on the little one, and my brother was in the recliner. I was eating steak and noodles, same with my sister and brother. As soon as we started eating my dad pulled out a movie called The Outsiders. He said that he watched this movie when he was a kid and he loved it.

I didn’t really know what to expect, but I'm the type of kid that loves watching movies and has watched over 250 movies in his life. So I’m open to a lot of new movies. I love 3 different movie genres, comedy, horror and action. So I have seen a lot of movies that I like, but none of them touched me the same as The Outsiders. I would watch that movie everyday if I could, it is definitely my favorite movie of all time and probably always will be.

When the movie started I thought that I wasn't going to like it and I didn't really have an interest in watching it because it looked like an old movie and the cover looked plain. About 10 minutes into the movie I starting liking it. It was making me laugh and I was really starting to like Ponyboy and Dally. I started to realize that Ponyboy was one of those characters who had the potential to be something in life and all the others weren't going to be anything. Ponyboy was young, a little older than me. He had brown hair and it was slicked back with a ton of grease. He was a small kid, about 5´6” and pretty skinny. Dally was the character that loved getting into trouble and picking fights, he is the type of character that cares about his friends and doesn't let anything happen to them. I can relate to that because I am the same way, I love causing trouble and I love fighting. For example, a couple months ago I through a milk carton across the lunch room because I thought it was funny. A short while into the movie I was loving it. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, afraid I would miss something.

The other characters started to come into the movie, like Johnny and Darry. Johnny was the kid that wasn't cared about by his parents and the only people that cared about him were his friends. Darry, Ponyboy’s older brother took care of him because their parents died. Darry cared about Ponyboy a lot and didn't want him doing anything that could get him hurt or in trouble, I can relate to that because I am the same way with my brother. One time me and my brother were hanging out and a kid said something to my brother and wanted to fight him so I beat him up.

Two-Bit was the character that made all the jokes and was the clown of the group. Everybody loves his sense of humor, he was probably my second favorite character in the movie because I have a pretty good sense of humor and so does he. He cared about his friends a lot, but he protected the younger ones the most, with a butterfly knife he carried around. I am the same way, I carry around knives to protect myself and my friends. For example, when I was in class someone was getting picked on because he was gay, so I told the other kid to shut up and leave him alone.

After a couple characters died I was so sad I started to cry. The theme song to the movie was, ¨Stay Gold¨ by Stevie Wonder.  Everytime I hear the song I cry because the movie was so emotional and the song reminds me of my favorite character, Dally. Johnny Cade says, “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold”.

I learned from the movie that life can be long or short and you never know which one it is going to be. It could be 15 years long or 90. You never know. It taught me that I need to cherish what I have and spend as much times as possible with my friends and make every memory a good one because once they are gone,  there is no getting them back.

I learned that there will be tragedy in life and you have to learn to get through it. All of your friends will make that easier for you and it is always good to have really good friends. Those amazing friends that will be there through thick and thin are amazing and everyone needs them. You also need to be there for the people that are there for you because they are hard to come by and they’re really important in your life.